Swordplay, scandal, and sex—welcome to the world of Tremontaine, a glittering new entry in Ellen Kushner's classic Riverside series.

This is the 1st episode in the third season of Tremontaine, a 13-episode serial from Serial Box Publishing. This episode written by Ellen Kushner.

Duchess Diane Tremontaine is the guest of honor at a fashionable banquet, but now that she holds power in her own right, challenges—and rivals—come in many forms. As allies reveal their own agendas, Diane looks to keep her friends close, and her enemies closer.

Welcome to Tremontaine, where ambition, love affairs, and rivalries dance with deadly results. A Duchess whose beauty is matched only by her cunning; a handsome young scholar with more passion than sense; a foreigner in a playground of swordplay and secrets; and a mathematical genius whose discoveries herald revolution when games of politics begin, no one is safe. Keep your wit as sharp as your steel in this world where politics is everything, and outcasts are the tastemakers.