A Taste of Gold and Iron

Kadou, the shy and anxious prince of Arasht, a kingdom loosely inspired by the Ottoman court, publicly humiliates himself in a clash with a powerful ambassador who happens to be the father of his sister the queen's new child. To prove his loyalty, he takes charge of investigating a break-in at one of the kingdom's guilds, aided by his newly assigned bodyguard Evemer, a cold, rigidly principled man who seems barely able to tolerate him. In Arasht, where royals can taste the purity of precious metals with a touch, counterfeiting is heresy, and the conspiracy they uncover could bring the kingdom to ruin. Reviewers describe it as a slow-burn queer romantic fantasy, rich in court politics and emotional angst, set in a world where queerness is simply normal.