What if life itself was the great adventure? Rose has always wanted to be a bard, a musician who inspires emotions by infusing her song with just a thread of magic. The course seems clear: attend bardic college in Splendor, the biggest city in the realm, and complete their four-year degree programme. It seemed easy enough. But nothing is ever that straightforward, is it? Along the way to Splendor, Rose meets Bosra, a grey-skinned giant-kin woman who is leaving her adventuring days behind her. Most adventurers don't retire; they either die as heroes or become villains. She intends to enjoy the fortune she has amassed in the most luxurious place she knows: the city of Splendor. Valentina is contemplating whether there is more to life than her accustomed luxuries and limitations as a princess – when Bosra and Rose find respite in the coffee shop she frequents most afternoons. One conversation leads to another, and before she knows it, she's encouraged to step out of her gilded cage… until the powerful people who built the cage come to drag her back. A low-stakes high-fantasy novel centred around the sisterhood of found family.
