Pale Court

The kingdom of Morthane has been stable for five hundred years.No plagues breach its walls.No famines take hold.No enemies conquer its borders.Queen Cael has just learned why.Hidden beneath the palace lies the Pale Court - a presence older than the kingdom itself. Each generation, the crown names a payment. In return, the Court ensures the kingdom survives.Every ruler before her has accepted the cost.Cael refuses.What follows is not rebellion, but consequence. The earth begins to move. The harvest falters. Bridges fail. And the truth - long buried - spreads through the kingdom faster than any disaster.As Morthane learns what it has been built on, Cael must answer a question no ruler before her has dared to face:What does it mean to govern honestly, when honesty itself may destroy everything?The Pale Court is a slow-burning, intellectually driven dark fantasy about power, responsibility, and the cost of choosing principle over survival.