I started this story to revisit an old trope: the murdered king, the scheming uncle with pretensions to the throne, the endangered heir. I wanted to give the scheming uncle’s perspective. The title and Prince Drajorian’s name are a hat tip to The Portrait of Dorian Gray, and the theme of surface versus soul.
This is another chapter that wandered away from a novel and fell into a short story. You’ll find another installment in this anthology, Drawn to the Brink.