In the wake of Ryth Redstone’s assassination, Grey Hollow festers. Guild banners hang like vultures over the streets, and every contract smells of treachery. The Oakwood Vanguard and the Fighters Guild circle one another like wolves, each hungry for House Serrean’s favour and for control of the broken city left behind.
  When word reaches the guild hall that a splinter faction calling itself the Retainers has seized the old southern keep, The Master, a strategist with ice in his veins, answers the summons without hesitation. At his side moves Aliza Everguard, the Cat: loyal, volatile and half-drunk on Embercrack tea. With a ranger, a goblin captain, and ten warriors of Clan Bogcloth, they march to end the uprising before dawn.
  What follows is a 2 day campaign of precision and ruthlessness, two nights that will carve new laws into the stones of Grey Hollow. In its aftermath, The Master’s name becomes legend and Aliza’s shadow, myth.
  The Tea Before the War is a tale of control and chaos, devotion and blood, the story of how one quiet evening in a guild lounge became the spark that set a city ablaze.

English graphic violence yandere Psychological Instability substance use noir Dark Romance Blood / Gore political intrigue Psychological Drama Dark Fantasy, Psychological