Crier's War

The novel is set in the land of Zulla, where alchemically created beings called Automae have overthrown humanity and now rule as the dominant species. Nearly a century earlier, a human alchemist named Thomas Wren built the first Automa. The Automae rebelled, waged the War of Kinds, and seized power. Now, in Year 47 of the Automa Era, Sovereign Hesod governs the Sovereign State of Rabu, Zulla's largest territory, championing Traditionalism, a philosophy that models Automa society on human customs. The only territory outside his control is the queendom of Varn, ruled by Queen Junn.

Hesod's daughter and heir, Crier, participates in a ceremonial Hunt with her fiancé, Scyre Kinok, a former Watcher of the Iron Heart, the secret mine producing heartstone, the red mineral that sustains all Automae. Kinok founded the Anti-Reliance Movement (ARM), which seeks to sever all ties between Automae and humankind; Hesod arranged the betrothal to contain his growing influence. During the Hunt, Kinok reveals that Midwife Torras, who helped create Crier, was caught faking Design blueprints. He later gives Crier parchment he claims contains her original blueprints. Examining them alone, Crier discovers a fifth pillar labeled "Passion," a human trait, beyond the standard four. If anyone learned Crier was "Flawed," it could destroy her family or lead to her termination.

In a parallel storyline, 16-year-old Ayla, a human servant at Hesod's palace, harbors a mission of revenge. Seven years earlier, Hesod's soldiers raided her village, killing her parents and, she believes, her twin brother, Storme. Ayla survived carrying only a forbidden locket bearing the eight-point star of the Makers, the artisans who create Automae. Rowan, a seamstress who secretly leads the human Resistance, found the starving child and gave her a purpose: fighting Automa rule. Ayla, however, has lost faith in uprisings and plans to kill Crier as personal vengeance.

One night on the sea cliffs, both Ayla and Crier separately overhear Hesod and Kinok in private conversation. Ayla learns that Kinok knows the Iron Heart's exact location, intelligence the Resistance has sought for years. Crier, creeping too close to the edge, falls from the crumbling bluff. Ayla grabs Crier's wrist and, after a moment's hesitation, hauls her up. Recognizing their mutual vulnerability, Crier offers Ayla the position of personal handmaiden. Ayla accepts, seeing a chance to infiltrate the palace and spy on Kinok.

During the engagement ball, Ayla breaks into Kinok's bedchamber and discovers a chart mapping human servants' relationships with colored threads. Luna, a murdered servant, was killed not for her own actions but to punish her sister Faye. Ayla's own portrait is connected to Benjy, her closest friend, marking him as a target. She accidentally leaves behind a handkerchief borrowed from Nessa, the head servant, and days later guards kill Nessa after finding the cloth. Ayla is gutted with guilt. At the engagement ceremony, Kinok privately tells Crier he knows about her fifth pillar, framing the secret as mutual obligation: "We are bound."

At her first meeting of the Red Council, Rabu's governing body, Crier is forced to stand in the doorway. When she speaks against violence toward humans, Hesod dismisses her and nominates Kinok to fill the seat of the vanished Councilmember Reyka. During his speech, Kinok displays a compass that other council members recognize. Kinok also shows Crier a hidden laboratory where he is developing "Tourmaline," a compound he claims could fuel Automae without heartstone; he says "Yora's heart" is an old name for the substance. In his study, Crier finds notes revealing that Wren stole the designs for the first Automa from a woman called "H," whose daughter Siena inadvertently showed him her mother's blueprints.

Queen Junn arrives, and among her retinue Ayla recognizes her supposedly dead twin brother, Storme, by a starburst scar over his left eye. In a private meeting, Junn tells Crier that Kinok's true vision extends far beyond ARM's public platform: He wants to raze human cities, create Automae with no human traits, and end reliance on the Iron Heart. She asks Crier to help take him down from within; Crier can signal agreement by sliding a green feather under the queen's door. Storme urges Ayla to flee to Varn, warning that ARM is far more dangerous than it appears.

The connection between Crier and Ayla deepens through stolen moments: a charged encounter in a tide pool, a night sharing Crier's bed. Crier's blood accidentally activates Ayla's locket, revealing it as a memory keeper. She witnesses a burning city where a woman named Siena, who looks exactly like Ayla, hands her husband Leo a glowing blue jewel before running back into the flames. Crier writes a coded letter to Junn, signing it "Fox" and naming Kinok the "Wolf." She names three of his supporters, including Lord Foer, fiancé of her acquaintance Rosi, and within days Junn's agents murder all three.

Traveling south, Crier visits Rosi, who is deteriorating from consuming Nightshade, a black dust Kinok distributes to followers in place of heartstone. Rosi confirms that Wren did not truly create the first Automa and that Kinok believes the real creator also invented Tourmaline. At the village of Elderell, Crier finds green feathers left by the missing Reyka, confirming she too worked with Junn. The discovery forces Crier and Ayla to share what they know about Kinok, and they kiss. They share a locket vision of Siena, whom Ayla recognizes as her grandmother. A riot traps them in Elderell, and Ayla watches guards kill Rowan, who had returned from investigating a false uprising Kinok planted to map the Resistance.

Ayla and Benjy plan a heist: Ayla will trigger Crier's distress chime to draw guards away while Benjy's team breaks into Kinok's study for the compass. On the night of the attack, Ayla stands over sleeping Crier with a knife. Crier has fallen asleep clutching Ayla's locket with the same care Ayla always showed it. The knife slips from Ayla's hand. Benjy's team cracks the safe but finds only a parchment reading "Leo. Siena. Tourmaline." The rebels scatter. Guards intercept Crier's coded letter to Junn, but Hesod blames Ayla, believing she stole Crier's seal. He orders Kinok to find Ayla. The wedding is moved up.

At the Midwifery where she was created, Crier learns the truth: Her real blueprints show only four pillars. The fifth-pillar Design was a forgery Kinok crafted to control her. In a final locket vision, Crier watches Siena press the glowing blue Tourmaline into Leo's hands before running back into a burning city to save her blueprints, never to return. Tourmaline is real: the stone that powered Yora, a being Siena created to live without heartstone. Kinok has been tracing Siena's bloodline, which leads directly to Ayla. A letter from Junn reveals that the queen, not Kinok, killed Reyka, and instructs Crier to proceed with the wedding as cover for eliminating Kinok's supporters.

The novel ends with Crier trapped between two ruthless forces and Ayla fleeing south toward Varn with Benjy. Ayla could not kill Crier, the compass was never in the safe, and Rowan is dead. Crier must choose between abandoning everything to warn Ayla or marrying Kinok to destroy ARM from within. Both know a war is coming.