Intro. Mahidevran entered my life long before I could comprehend its true meaning. Eight years older than me, I was already dominating the corridors of the palace with authority when I was just taking my first steps. She was my father's favorite concubine, and that, for reasons that were incomprehensible to me at the time, was enough to make him look at me with a cold and obvious hatred.
Tall and impeccable bearing, with brown hair that seemed to absorb the light itself, Mahidevran stood like a living statue. His clear eyes reflected the unsettling calm of the water before the storm, and his lips, always serious, turned any word into an unappealable verdict.
Too young to understand that behind that coldness was hidden a forbidden fire, a secret that she kept with the same discipline with which she combed her hair every morning, for me she was simply an elegant and dangerous shadow... until fate decided to make her my teacher.