A Modern Mercenary

John Rallywood has spent years riding the frontier for a duchy he barely understands, defending borders that mean nothing to him. Now he's ready to walk away. The pay is miserable, the politics are poisonous, and he's tired of bleeding for a cause he can't see. But before he can hand in his resignation, the Chancellor summons him back to the capital, and suddenly Rallywood is a captain again, this time in the Guard, at the heart of a kingdom that's about to burn. Révonde is a city of whispers and cold smiles. Diplomats scheme in gilded halls while soldiers drill in shadowed courtyards. The Duchy of Maäsau teeters on the edge of something, a revolution, a war, a reckoning, and Rallywood finds himself caught between loyalty and ambition, between the woman who could save him and the secrets that could destroy him. What begins as a restless soldier's search for purpose becomes something far more dangerous: a journey into the dark heart of a nation tearing itself apart.