The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson

When Shai is caught replacing the Moon Scepter with her nearly flawless forgery, she must bargain for her life and create--to Forge--a new soul for the emperor in less than one hundred days.

This was going to get 4 stars till I realized who ‘The Imperial Fool' was, and then went to read the deleted prologue on Sanderson's website

A short story by Sanderson which earned a Hugo award. Much of the feel from this seemed to be the inspiration for the soulcasters in his Stormlight Archives series. Like other worlds, this has a magic element which allows for “forging” – modifying the history of an object to change how it appears today. For instance – rewriting the history of a neglected table to have been cared for in order to make it strong a beautiful today. What about rewriting the past of a person? Would that change their soul?

I read this novella in a two-hour sprint, and it seems to me that every word, in this work of art, serves a definite purpose. Absolutely superb storytelling!