Kaikeyi

Kaikeyi is a neglected princess of Kekaya, dismissed by a father who traded her mother away and overlooked in favor of her brothers. Searching her late mother's texts for the goddess who never answers her prayers, she instead discovers the Binding Plane, a space where she can see and reshape the bonds of feeling between people. She uses that quiet power to remake herself into a charioteer, a diplomat, and a queen of Ayodhya who forces open a place for women in public life. Then the gods set their sights on her stepson Rama, and Kaikeyi makes the choice that mythology has condemned her for ever since, told at last from inside her own reasoning.