Imperial Stratagem: The Empress Trials

My name is Almira Silvermere, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Silvermere Dutchy.
Up until recently, I was the pride of my father. I could do no wrong, until I did.
I helped my older sister escape the false imprisonment of my father and sent her out to sea to seek the gifts that her father left for her there.
My father had always kept her from the sea, fearful that the world would know the secret of our family. That my sister was not his, and now I've helped her in the first step of revealing that hidden truth.
I'm no longer my father's pride, and for that I am to be sent away to my death.
The Empress Trials may not sound like a death sentence to most, but there is a reason only the lesser titled houses in each dutchy send their daughters.
If I survive, I become Empress. If I don't, well, it will be the end of the true Silvermere bloodline.