The Princess Consort: The Rebellion of the Eight Lords

The Crown of Augustus: Prologue to Ice and Fire The old king is aging, and a storm is brewing over the empire. The crown prince and the second prince struggle for the right to inherit the throne, while the three great dukes maneuver behind the scenes: the Gray family in charge of justice, the Soros family in charge of domestic affairs, and the Windsor family in charge of finance. But the true balance of power rests with the empire's eight electors, who command its military forces. Among them are the martial Hohenzollerns of the North, the wealthy Metternichs of the southeast, and the mysterious seer Heydrichs. Each has an agenda, waiting for the right moment. At the heart of this maelstrom of power is Leon, the disgrace of the northern Hohenzollern family and a notorious playboy. His family uses him as a pawn, arranging his marriage to Alisa, a daughter of a collateral branch of the financial powerhouse Windsor family, to strengthen the royalist alliance. No one knows that Leon's soul has already been replaced by Li Ang, a modern history graduate student. Newly arrived, Li Ang is forced to assume Leon's identity and face an unfamiliar world of magic, battle qi, and cold political marriages. He must contend with the scorn and schemes of the capital's many factions, as well as the icy hostility of his fiancée, Alisa. On top of that, he must navigate the expectations and pressures weighing on him within his own family. This marriage, which seems to make him a sacrifice, becomes the key to his survival and his chance to turn the tables. Watch as a man armed with modern thinking and historical insight works his way through the imperial chess game, shifting the fulcrum of fate step by step from the position of a “discarded pawn” and writing his own legend of ice and fire.