of iron and crowns

SYNOPSIS

If Irina Gu was given the choice, she'd never have agreed to being married off far away. But as a princess of the Yie Dynasty, of the Empire of Sai, it is her duty to form political alliances with their allies. Thus, her reluctant agreement. Thus, the rising anger as the date neared to the day she stopped being Irina Gu.

Stephen Ralloyn knows his duty as well, and he must perform it. An alliance with Sai is vital right now, should the two nations wish to work together to take down the Meliqueans. Peace is only temporary, the Meliqueans were simply licking their wounds to prepare for the next fight, and both sides knew it. It was a firm alliance now, or never. And neither Sai nor Arecia could weather the storm on their own.

Thus, when a series of malicious events occur over the wedding, Irina is concerned. And when their best friends falls victim to an attempt on their lives, Irina and Stephen are determined to root out the evil amongst their midst before it becomes too late. Someone is trying to ruin the wedding between the Prince of Arecia and the Princess of Sai, and it will not be tolerated.

The two unlikely couple would make sure of it.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

AUTHOR'S NOTE

this took long enough if you asked me. i was lowkey just too lazy to make the aesthetics for this chapter, but here it is now!! irina's story in all its full glory!!

i've realised in the past few books that i've lowkey started moving a bit more away from the romance side of things??? and it's not really a bad thing. irina and stephen aren't going to be your normal couple, after all it's just a political marriage, but y'know... god knows what might happen.

this story is set one year after the events of where the thorns grow, and it was hecking fun to write. i hope y'all enjoy reading, and thanks for sticking around :)

this novel is the second of the court of bones series, which will consist of four books. court of bones is the third series in the silk and steel chronicles, and is a spin-off of the sable sisters and lady kuroki's school for girls. it can be read separately.

PLEASE NOTE

this world is based closely off our real one, and this includes the history and politics of many countries. however, it is not meant to be 100% accurate and i have added and omitted as i wished to, with no harmful intent behind so. neither do i personally agree with all the "counterparts" of more modern political issues that the characters of this book may believe in.

historical accuracy was not my goal in writing this series, and thus there may be quite some inconsistencies in comparison to actual history. for example, the titles of saian (chinese) characters have been altered to be more understandable to a western audience, as the original chinese ones were confusing enough to make even a native chinese person (me) gain a massive headache.

while melique, the "enemy" of this story, is based off a mixture of south american countries, meiji-era japan and french revolution and napoleonic france, along with early ussr, it does not represent my opinion towards any of the countries.

there is strong language and hints at explicit content within the story, though none is clearly shown. read at your own risk!

7/3/2022 - 26/5/2022
(regular updates)