Sanguine Courtier

THE WILDS

The Exsanguine Matron nursed on a dying kingdom, and every matron of standing keeps a court. Her courtiers rose out of the Bloodfen dressed in the war's runoff — battlefield finery of rust and vein — to attend her levees and taste what the Ford bled before she drinks. They observe impeccable etiquette. In the fen, being presented at court and being fed to it are the same ceremony.