Query Letter

"Hey, Des... do you... love me?"

"I love you as a servant should love his master, my lady."

"But... y-you know what I'm talking about!"

"Ah, I only wish I was allowed to... Servant and Master? How inappropriate, Lady Vannessa. Especially when you know Arya's out for blood, you would be wise not to show any type of exploitable weakness, like love."

This so-far untitled novel is set in the fantasy world of Lucifenia among lavish parties, beautiful dresses and powerful forces of magic. The heroine, Vannessa Lucielia Hearthefiliea, is the sole heiress to her family's enormous fortune and estate. However, she is kidnapped at the age of five and brought to a secret facility in which she, along with many other children and young teenagers, are experimented on and tortured by practitioners of dark magic. Under 'Project Faust', Vannessa gains a precocious mind and intellect more suited to one of the Grand Magic Council members than a child, but the dark magic warps her personality and turns her into a magical prodigy with a sadistic streak.

After three weeks in the facility, Vannessa meets a twelve-year old boy with "raven hair, the most beautiful colour in the world; because nothing can change it or cover over it". Both of them stage a daring escape, and manage to flee the place two months later. However, the duo who had become close friends are separated and Vannessa returns to the house of Hearthefiliea as the rightful heir. This causes Arya, cousin to Vannessa, to lose her status as heir apparent that the former possessed during the latter's absence. Arya vows to claim the family name for her own and get rid of Vannessa.

In a further twist of fate fourteen years on, a new servant joins the family and Vannessa, now nineteen, briefly muses that he seems familiar. The young man is assigned to be her personal attendant and bodyguard, while Arya's scheming goes on in the background, aimed at Vannessa's twentieth birthday gala, when she will be named head of the house. Things start to get really messy when Vannessa is asked to marry the prince of Lucifenia, but sparks are flying between her and her dashing servant...

This book is currently on its second draft, which is partially completed. Thank you for reading through all that, it must have been rather long-winded; also, thank you for considering my novel. :)

Cheers,
Elise