Heir

Some time later, Quil, the reluctant heir to the Martial throne and nephew of Empress Helene Aquilla, navigates the bustling market of Navium with his best friend, Sufiyan, and the elite soldiers, known as Masks, who serve as his guards. Soon, he notices someone following him. Quil’s growing discomfort stems from a series of brutal murders: Young street children and Masks have been mysteriously killed, their hearts burned to ash. These deaths, kept secret by Empress Helene to avoid inciting conflict, haunt Quil, especially as they remind him of personal losses: Ruh and Ilar, two people he cared deeply for, died in a similarly horrific manner. He talks to Sufiyan about wanting to abdicate, but his brooding is interrupted when chaos erupts in the market: A boy is discovered dead, his chest hollowed out in the same manner as the other victims. Quil’s instincts tell him the killer is still nearby, but before he can investigate further, a mysterious voice leads him to a hidden apothecary.

There, Quil confronts the Bani al-Mauth, the Chosen of Death and Sufiyan’s grandmother, who followed him through the market. She reveals that she wants his help in solving the murders, which extend far beyond what Quil knew. She questions him about him receiving training for his magic, but he brushes her off.

Sirsha, a tracker, currently inhabits the lawless settlement of Raider’s Roost. She’s ambushed by Migva, a gang leader, and her crew, who want the money Sirsha stashed away from her tracking jobs. Sirsha pretends to reveal the location of her supposed treasure, only to slip away from her attackers. After grabbing her things, she flees, with Migva and her gang close behind. She heads toward the Jutts, a jagged and nearly impassable rocky landscape where most would not dare go, especially in the current rain. With Migva close on her heels, Sirsha climbs up a rock face, but Migva attacks her again when they reach the top.

The chase ends as Migva’s greed for a gold chain around Sirsha’s neck results in a scuffle that sends both women tumbling toward a chasm. Sirsha saves herself by grabbing a vine, while Migva plunges to her death. Sirsha is then rescued by a stranger who pulls her to safety. He tells her he’s been looking for her and that he’s in need of her tracking skills.

The narrative returns to Aiz’s storyline in the past. In a desperate bid to escape from Tiral, a humiliated and enraged Aiz taps into her latent windsmithing power—an ability to manipulate the wind and create storms. She unleashes a devastating storm that leaves Tiral’s quarters in ruins and sets the Aerie ablaze, but her control is fleeting. She barely escapes with her life and Tiral’s book. Once she makes it outside, Cero finds her and takes her back to their home at the cloister to recover.

Soon, Tiral arrives with soldiers, demanding justice. Aiz tells Cero to take the book and run. He escapes before Tiral captures Aiz and the cloister’s clergy, including the elderly Sister Noa. Aiz is dragged before the Triarchs, the three rulers of Kegar, who debate the clerics’ fate and whether Aiz acted alone or as part of a larger conspiracy. Despite protests from the High Cleric and Sister Noa, the Triarchs agreed to send the clerics to the brutal prison known as the Tohr for questioning and conscript the cloister’s orphans into the army. Aiz, meanwhile, faces a lifetime in the Tohr if she survives interrogation.

In the present, Quil buys Sufiyan a modest gift for his yearfall—the equivalent of a birthday—then retreats into Navium’s palace gardens, mulling over the looming responsibilities of leadership and the legacy of his father, Marcus Farrar, the tyrant who nearly destroyed the Empire. Quil reflects on the toll power has taken on his family, including his aunt, who has ruled tirelessly for years.

His cousin Arelia interrupts his brooding to talk to him about Kegari aircraft, then lets him know that his aunt was looking for him. He returns to his quarters, where Helene confronts him about his talk of abdicating the throne, scolding him for running off by himself. During the argument, he has to suppress his magic, which he could use to read her memories and emotions to gain an edge. In the end, his aunt tells him she plans to announce his coronation during the upcoming Rathana celebrations, ending her decades-long obligation. When Quil balks, Helene argues that ruling will provide him purpose and honor his family’s sacrifices.

At the Rathana celebration five days later, Musa, an ambassador, advises Quil to follow his desires rather than his aunt’s plans. Quil doesn’t have time to consider this, as several nobles arrive and reveal that his aunt has arranged a marriage for him.

Sirsha’s new client is a Martial man—meaning that, like Quil, he is ethnically a member of the ruling Martial people whose empire encompasses much of the known world—who is evasive about his identity and the full details of the job, offering only cryptic hints about her target’s brutality and the number of victims. While Sirsha is wary of his secrecy, his thorough knowledge of her exploits and his offer of a life-changing amount of money persuades her to accept the job, albeit with reservations. The two seal the agreement with a blood oath, an ancient and binding magical ritual that makes it impossible for Sirsha to abandon the mission. As they set out to track the killer, Sirsha’s unique magical ability to communicate with the elements, a skill she calls “tracking,” reveals that the killer is a woman and that she has traveled south rather than west, contrary to her client’s assumption. Despite her client’s insistence that the job is straightforward, Sirsha senses there is more at play than he is letting on. They prepare to temporarily part ways, with Sirsha heading south.

Aiz is imprisoned in the Tohr, which can dull magic. She, Sister Noa, and other clerics from the cloister are thrown into a cell, where they discover three malnourished children already imprisoned. Aiz vows to protect them and, at Noa’s urging, begins telling the Sacred Tales of Mother Div, the original savior of their people, to the children and other prisoners. Despite the jailers’ threats, Aiz refuses to stop.

Weeks pass, and the Sacred Tales become a source of strength for the prisoners. Aiz’s defiance angers the jailers, particularly Kithka, who eventually interrupts one of her stories and declares she is being sent to the Hollows, a part of the prison from which few ever return.

Quil is reeling after he learns about his arranged marriage and feels betrayed that the decision was made without his knowledge or consent. Despite the shock, his sense of duty compels him to keep up appearances at the party. With the support of Sufiyan and Arelia, Quil resolves to confront his aunt. When he finally gets a private moment with her on a balcony, he questions her motives and expresses his anger over being kept in the dark. Helene hints that his betrothed is the daughter of one of the Kegari Triarchy. As she mentions that the Empire has heard nothing from the Triarchy since fall, drums signal an attack on the city, and fire erupts in the sky.

The trail leads Sirsha south until she comes to a fork in the path. Her magic then leads her to the bones of a young victim. While she examines them, the earth rages at the killer’s atrocities. After she buries the victim, she continues to follow the trail to Navium. Once inside the city, Sirsha navigates the crowds present for the Rathana festival to an inn. She tries to take a brief break there to recharge, but she is interrupted by the wind and earth, which lead her to the sea. As she prepares to secure a ship, a strange presence descends over the docks, and the wind warns her to flee. Sirsha escapes to a quieter alley as a surreal, buzzing sound builds to an unbearable pitch. The crowds gathered for the festivities then begin to scream.

Aiz is thrown into the dreaded Hollows, where the oppressive silence and eerie pulsing ore sap her strength and hope, reducing her anger to despair. Days blur together as she struggles to stay alive, and her belief in Mother Div falters. She questions her faith and purpose, haunted by her failures and the suffering of her people. In the depths of her hopelessness, Aiz has a miraculous vision of Mother Div herself. She urges Aiz to escape, confront Tiral, and rally the oppressed to reclaim their homeland. Aiz swears to carry out her mission, and Div marks her with a D-shaped scar.

Aiz is released from the Hollows and reunited with her fellow prisoners. She learns that more clerics have been arrested and that riots are happening in the city. Aiz also tells Noa of her vision in the Hollows. With the cleric’s encouragement and a stolen hairpin, Aiz successfully escapes her cell and slips through the prison’s labyrinthine halls. She is briefly stopped by Kithka, but she appeals to their shared suffering to secure the guard’s reluctant help in finding an exit.

Despite her injuries and exhaustion, Aiz fights her way through the darkness of the prison’s escape tunnels, only to emerge in a raging storm. Before she can succumb to the elements or her exhaustion, she is rescued by Cero, who has been waiting for her.

A series of explosions rock Navium’s docks as the Kegari launch a large-scale assault against the Empire. Quil, Helene, Sufiyan, and Arelia escape the bombing that begins to strike the palace, making for the safe room. The Empress orders the Masks to take the nobles to safety and insists Quil go with them, but Musa tells him to stay. Musa then informs them that the Kegari have deployed over 30,000 soldiers and hundreds of their deadly Battle Sails, targeting key Imperial cities. Worse, the Empire’s defenses are incomplete, and the enemy’s precision suggests a spy within their ranks. The Empress reveals that she had suspected this attack and had attempted to flush out the traitor through the ruse of a marriage alliance for Quil.

As the palace begins to crumble under the relentless assault, Helene urges Quil to escape the city with Sufiyan and Arelia. She entrusts him with a special sword called a Teluman scim and a cryptic mission: to find his friend Tas and retrieve a mysterious object critical to defeating the Kegari. Quil, torn between staying to fight and honoring his aunt’s wishes, is forced to flee as the palace collapses around them.

Sirsha awakens to chaos and destruction after the Kegari attack on Navium. Wounded but alive thanks to the wind’s warning, she navigates the ruined city, determined to escape and continue her hunt for the killer. Sirsha devises a desperate plan to steal a ship, which the Empress kept for emergency use. Just as Sirsha finds the boat, a pair of Kegari raiders attack her. She tries to fight back, but one of them pins her down. Before the raider can kill her, she is saved by Quil, who arrives with Sufiyan and Arelia close behind. The trio commandeer the vessel with Sirsha’s reluctant help. As the ship departs, Sirsha realizes that the killer had been around Quil and Sufiyan in the past. She also learns that the killer possesses magic, which complicates the hunt; Sirsha is forbidden to hunt magic-users under pain of death at the hands of her family, who exiled her. Tensions further escalate when Sufiyan recognizes the ring Sirsha carries. It belongs to his father, Elias Veturius, a legendary hero of the Empire and Sirsha’s mysterious client.