The Dictator: Virgin Guards

And virgins, history shows, are very good at keeping secrets. Until they’re not.

He is "The Vessel." They are "The Seals." A Seal who speaks his birth name is stripped, hosed down in the courtyard, and sent to a "re-education farm" in the northern permafrost. No Seal has ever returned. virgin guards the dictator

In the isolated fortress-state of Valdoria, the Dictator’s personal security is not handled by scarred generals or brutish mercenaries. It is handled by the —a unit of 13 young women selected from rural villages before their first blood. Their slogan: "Purity is the ultimate loyalty." And virgins, history shows, are very good at keeping secrets

The regime believes a guard who has never desired another person can never be turned by bribery, seduction, or emotional blackmail. They are weaponized innocence. Their virginity is literally state property—checked monthly by the Matron Examiner. No Seal has ever returned

Last year, Guard #7 (Lin, 19, weaver’s daughter) was found in the east garden at 3 AM—not at her post. When asked why, she said only: "He told me to watch the moon with him." She was retired the next morning. No one knows where. But the other Seals now refuse to look at the Dictator when he smiles.

— Excerpt from “Throne of Glass Hearts,” an upcoming investigation into the world’s last living absolute monarchy.