Reileen van Kaile

Your description of Empress is interesting, because although I've never heard of the book, its plot, or its character, it sounds more than a little like what I'm doing with my current book, Black Roses. The main character in that is also "god-touched" and has had a hard life, but unlike the character in Empress, she has plenty of needs and wants of her own, and plenty of moments of weakness and doubt.