Dragon Queen's Dark Desire — Episode 1

What happens in episode 1 of Dragon Queen's Dark Desire

Episode 1 of Dragon Queen's Dark Desire is a healer's first examination of a queen who cannot transform, lit by candles and a glowing touch. It runs 61 seconds.

Candle-light, silk walls and a queen in a draped gold gown, her pale hair woven into crown braids pinned with pearls. You are the healer summoned to her chambers, and episode 1 is the examination: she grips the neckline of her dress with a hesitant pout, then lets the healer's hand rest on her sternum — and a warm light blooms under his fingertip.

That glow is the series' signature. The queen is a dragon who has lost the ability to change shape, and the cure, it turns out, is intimacy. Where Claimed by the Dragon Queen is cold and political, this one is warm, gilded and openly romantic, with the magic doing a lot of the storytelling. Five episodes take the treatment further each time, with other mystical figures joining the effort.