In an alternate timeline where the Dance of the Dragons did not wipe out the dragons, House Targaryen remains powerful—but fragile. With only a few dragons left and even fewer riders, power has become concentrated, feared, and dangerously unstable. To prevent another civil war, the Crown enforces strategic marriages, binding rival branches of the family together in an effort to maintain control. One of them binds Aerion Brightflame to a princess he does not expect to matter.