Aurelia awakens in her past alongside her covetous twin Seraphina, remembering the cold cellar where Seraphina poisoned her after failing to impersonate the holy prophet. Having burned in royal pyres during their previous cycle, Seraphina now alters tactics, pushing Aurelia forward during imperial selections to guarantee Aurelia faces the monarch's deadly executioner instead.
Seraphina assumes her sister is an imposter bound for the headsman's block, entirely unaware that Aurelia holds genuine visions of the kingdom's doom. Standing before the skeptical sovereign, Aurelia manifests accurate divinations that bend the royal council to their knees, turning a death sentence into sovereign authority while her sister's envy consumes her.
