Ever since the Kryser Trials, the Royal Picking has been a waited for event. Every ten years, thirty girls and thirty boys , ages sixteen through twenty, are randomly chosen from the villages to win a chance to be Queen and King of Akontis. The reign of the past Queen and King is up and the Tenth Royal Picking has begun. In the Stifles, Xiernia, an eighteen year old girl, finds herself trying to decide if she wants to be Queen or not, though it isn't even up to her. It isn't up to anyone. Do you want to be Queen?