Iskra_sparkling
Taken from her homeland alongside her older sister Anastasia, young Eirene arrives at the gates of Topkapi Palace.
While Anastasia quickly learns to navigate the dangerous currents of the imperial harem and soon enough becomes Kösem, Eirene remains under her sister's fierce protection, growing up in the margins of a world ruled by ambition and intrigue.
But fate has other plans.
The same year Eirene enters the palace, it turns out the place isn't so boring because there is a kid her age - prince Mustafa. Overlooked, underestimated, and whispered about as "unfortunate," he grows up just as isolated as she is. Two forgotten souls in a court that devours the weak.
As years pass, alliances shift, jealousy festers, and the delicate balance between siblings- sultanas and prince and Sultan - begins to crack. Kösem rises, powerful and magnificent... but Eirene is determined to save her only friend from danger and disaster.
When the line between loyalty and survival blurs, Eirene is forced to step out of her sister's shadow. Somewhere between the growing up, Mustafa became the man she hardly can avert the gaze from.
But they are just friends, right? Nothing can come up between them, it is forbidden. Halime Sultan - Musfafa's mother was clear about that, so was Kösem.
Torn between love and ambition, between the boy who understands her and the sister who raised her, she faces a question that could reshape an empire:
Can one overlooked girl defy destiny - and rewrite the fate of a prince history has already doomed?