Stacia Stark

Yes.

He's just kind of a figurehead that represents a lot of the emperors.

But at the same time, he's got his own unique motivations, which you'll see a lot more of in book two.

So Tienan was Arvel's kind of childhood sweetheart, one would say.

She didn't know who he was.

And

He was very much treating her as his escape from his life.

And then he abandoned her on essentially the worst day of her life.

So it's not until she gets to the Ludus and realises, oh, he's the one standing in my way of what I need to do here.

So that was very fun.

And then Rorik, he was one of those characters that just –

like, surprises me sometimes.

Do you know what I mean?

Like, he wasn't supposed to be, when I first pitched this book, like, before I pitched it, it was just going to be a second chance romance, which I'd never written before.

And that's why, like, you know, Tianan and Abel really do have, like, it was important to me that that felt real because it is real to those characters, right?

And it's not just a case of, like, oh, this is the old love interest.

He's got no shot, right?

But with Rorik, I feel like he just kind of,

TNN definitely has a shot, right?

Because I guess it's like...