Faction · The Glass Palace
The Court of Night
We don’t close. We hide.
The noble court and government of Nocturna and the islands of the Dew Sea, seated in the Glass Palace and led by Queen Morwen. It was founded in 612 AE, when the first Longlived took the palace and declared themselves regents in the name of the Moon. It counts 41 Longlived, some thirty old houses of human nobles, nine Weavers since the Breaking, masters of the crafts, and a silver-masked guard.
Its values are memory, secrecy and survival. “In the Night we remember everything. It’s what we do.” The Court was born of a poverty of light, and everything it does is doing sums. Its flaw is a distrust that turns into cruelty. In Nocturna the dead are kept and their names are not forgotten, and flowers are left on the quays for the Echoes; but the nobles also devour Echoes to live.
After the Full Night, the harbour is “frozen to the bottom”.
Characters
Queen Morwen
A Longlived of three hundred years, regent of Nocturna and the islands of the Dew Sea, who in secret polishes lenses.
Nyra
A lantern-maker of the Glass Market who became a Moon Weaver in the Breaking, and who has raised her little sister alone.
Mira
Nyra’s ten-year-old sister, who paints whelk shells with squid ink and talks to the dead.
Tamsin
The woman who keeps the palace’s light, and two dead lanterns on a shelf.
Count Aurelio
A Longlived lord of Nocturna’s cisterns, once Morwen’s right hand and now the head of the opposition within the Court.