Preface (Author's Note)

Life in an occupied city hasn't been terrible for 17-year-old Lavina. Her family's aristocratic status has left their lives mostly unchanged, but when she returns from finishing school, she finds her family's financial situation a little different.

No longer able to pay off the occupying forces for the whole family's protection, Lavina learns she is being sent away to work for the Royalist tyrants. Unable to face the decision her parents have made for her, she runs away, and learns far more about herself and homeland than expected.

(NaNoWriMo 2011)