Althea opens her eyes on the sacred pairing dawn, reliving the day her deceitful sister Lyra hijacked her former reptilian mate to secure prestige. Banished into perilous badlands by elders manipulated by her sibling's lies, Althea refuses to perish in the dust. Instead, she tends to an abandoned, wounded white beast whom the tribes condemn as rankless vermin.
Their union produces miraculous twin cubs bearing unmatched imperial crests, exposing the slumbering royal heritage of her silent protector. As ancient priesthoods proclaim Althea their prophesied matriarch, Lyra's manufactured prestige collapses under weak offspring, driving the envious sister toward treacherous schemes while Althea consolidates power to defend her growing pride.
