Lucien, Count de Chretien, is one of the king's most trusted advisors. He is also a very short man, nearly a dwarf. But his intelligence and compassion render him a figure of formidable proportions. Lucien walks a fine line between serving his adored king and coming to realize that Marie-Joseph speaks the truth when she claims that the sea monsters aren't monsters at all, but humans. The court at Versailles is a character in itself.
Courtiers pair off as lovers, break apart, and pair again.
Everyone vies for the favor of the king. Louis, the Sun King, is presented here as a man so self-involved that he requires an elaborate ceremony with dozens of courtiers each morning just to awaken him and assist him to the toilet. That neither he nor any of his courtiers regard this as the least bit exceptional makes for an intriguing read. Pope Innocence XII, cousin to the King, figures in the story as Yves wars between his duty to the Church and his beliefs as a scholar. It would have been easy to present the King as a man whose material goods are outstripped only by his ego.