UNFASTEN THE JEWEL KING

Artisan Seraphine is summoned to unfasten the perfect shell of King Aurex as sealed emotions crystallize toward his heart. Each plate she opens releases a memory, sensation, and political secret the court polished away. To live, Aurex must surrender his image before the empire while Seraphine decides whether vulnerability can become a new kind of rule.

A copper artisan hears a king’s perfect armor cracking from miles away, then receives the one summons no subject is meant to survive.