A samurai promising his sister he'll return. A hundred elite soldiers marching north with him. A fenwulf knight without family or past. Only the republic that made her, and her will to die for it. The empire's perfect blade, and it's emptiest man. A warlord's daughter marching beneath a banner she doesn't trust. The most promising mind in the Magisterium, carrying a message that could end the world. An epic told through five eyes as a continent goes to war, and a centuries-old truth begins to surface beneath it all. This multi-POV fantasy story is written in style of Game of Thrones, featuring imperial legions, samurai, and knights, alongside elves, dwarves, beastfolk, and many other mythical creatures that inhabit the world. Content warning: Violence, War Themes, Grief, Trauma

Would you call a girl who grew up in the forest a princess? Would you call her lucky, or cursed? I am Tara, the youngest daughter of Janaka and Sunayana of Mithila, the one the lightning gave and the song forgot. I was raised by my elder sister Sita and her husband Rama as their own, and when they were sent into the forest of Panchavati for fourteen years, I went with them, because I could not be parted from the only mother I had ever known. The forest was my home. The trees were my teachers. My Lakshmana was my wall, and the small clearing of white flowers was my own. And in the last year of those fourteen, when the curse of Panchavati came down on us at last, I was taken with my Akkama to a country across the sea. And there, in the garden of my enemy, I met the eyes that matched mine. This is what came after. This is my story. This is the curse of Panchavati.