_Author's POV_
The Ashthorne mansion had not looked like this in years.
Every hall was lit properly, every surface attended to, flowers arranged in the specific way that communicated occasion without excess. The staff moved quietly, they were people who understood that the evening mattered and had prepared accordingly. Nana Seraphine had overseen every detail personally and it showed.
The ten young men arrived within the first half hour, each announced at the entrance and received by Celeste, who managed the introductions with the ease she always carried with her.
The first was Dorian Ashwell. Twenty-eight, second son of the Ashwell family whose territory bordered the eastern region. He had studied governance abroad and come back with a quietness about him that read as genuin
