Sera of the Emerald Crescent - Sultanın Gölgesi (The Sultan's Shadow)

They called her Sera of the Emerald Crescent — a title spoken with awe in the Sultan’s court and fear on the battlefield. Once a child of the Carpathian hills, she was taken under the devşirme, baptized anew in fire and faith, her name and past erased. Yet somewhere beneath the oaths and the silks, she still heard the wind of her homeland whispering her true name.

Her armor gleamed with gold and emerald, each jewel a conquest she did not choose. The Sultan trusted no one more with his life, nor feared anyone more in his dreams. When she rode into war, the Janissaries followed — for she fought like one who had lost everything.

They said she never removed her helm before dawn prayers, that beneath it she wept in a tongue long forgotten. And though her blade bore the crescent of the empire, the blood it drew still sang hymns to a God she was forbidden to remember.