A novella of 13k words.

Emily Dontal is the godborn daughter of The Mother—one of the only godborn children allowed to live in the Barony of Breton. One dark night, she prays to her mother for a child—a godborn child, a sister—to train and teach so that the Church might continue in her absence.

But the child she is given in answer to her prayers is not godborn; she comes not from the goddess but from the household of the man who rules the Barony—a man who is hated and feared by all of his citizens, especially Emily Dontal herself.

This is a story about the founding of the Empire of Essalieyan.