“I spent my whole life believing an empire was land, and money, and men who were afraid of me,” I said.

“It took a dying mother, and a sister I didn’t know I had, to teach me that an empire built on fear is only a very expensive cage.

My father died inside his.

He left it to me, and I nearly died inside it too, and I would have, if the two of you hadn’t walked into it and shown me the door.”

I closed the watch with a soft snap and put it away.