Everyone knows that arranged marriages are evil. But on the islands, the daughters of princes from birth understand that they are merchandise—valuable only by the advantage their marriage will bring. Princess Ilaya doesn’t argue with fate. Her father commanded that she become the wife of an emperor from a foreign continent—so the future husband can only be sought in the good. And it doesn’t matter that the emperor himself sees the bride solely as an attachment to a peace treaty. After all, the legend says: if you water stones long enough, they will bloom with flowers.