The Last One

The first installment in a fantasy series, the novel is set in Vallendor, a realm plagued by drought, disease, and imperial conquest. A young woman opens her eyes in a dying forest with no memory of who she is. A pale thief named Olivia is straddling her, stealing a gold moth amulet from her neck. The woman, who later remembers her first name is Kai, cannot stop Olivia from fleeing with the pendant and all her clothing and gear. Kai pursues the thief barefoot into Maford, a drought-stricken village where every resident glows amber, a sign of a deadly illness called Miasma.

In the town square, a mysterious woman with a silver glow, later identified as Sybel, telepathically warns Kai she does not belong in Maford and gifts her the ability to hear others' thoughts. Kai tackles Olivia and begins choking her before Johny, the town guard, intervenes. He and the jailer drag Kai toward prison, hurling slurs. Rescue comes from Jadon Ealdrehrt, a broad-shouldered blacksmith who presents himself as Olivia's brother. He negotiates a fine for Kai's disruption, and Olivia offers her barn loft as lodging, keeping Kai's stolen belongings as collateral.

While working off her debt, Kai bonds with Jamart, a candlemaker who secretly worships the Lady of the Verdant Realm. She learns about Emperor Syrus Wake of the northern empire of Brithellum, who claims divine authority and demands fealty from every province. Maford falls under the kingdom of Vinevridth, which refuses to submit. Olivia shows Kai a storybook containing a tale about a deity named Kaivara who holds dominion near a treacherous body of water called the Sea of Devour. Kai suspects her name derives from this goddess.

Kai and Jadon grow closer through shared vulnerability. Jadon confides about his painful upbringing, revealing that his father resented him and that a beloved military tutor's death left him without emotional refuge. Meanwhile, Sybel appears again, scolding Kai for unnamed failures and demanding she make amends. Jadon secretly returns Kai's moth amulet, but the surge of reconnection causes Kai to faint, and the pendant's weakened clasp later fails again unnoticed.

When Wake's soldiers invade Maford, Kai fights alongside Jadon, killing multiple soldiers and freeing prisoners from the jail, including Jamart's daughter Lively. Together they defeat an Otaan, a massive cannibal soldier who recognizes Kai and accuses her of causing destruction. Villagers initially praise Kai but quickly blame her presence for the invasion.

A white-haired woman named Elyn arrives with towering sentinels, describing Kai as violent and claiming Kai broke an agreement. When no one surrenders Kai, fire-belching cursuflies, vulture-like creatures, bombard the town with fireballs. Kai discovers she can shoot crackling blue wind from her fingertips to knock the creatures from the sky. Three sunabi, birch-skinned creatures with ram-shaped heads, then burst through the floor of Jadon's cottage. A dying sunabi whispers the words "Danar" and "Devour" before expiring.

Kai flees Maford with Jadon, Olivia, and Philia, Olivia's companion, riding across battlefields. Pursued by white wolves that transform into massive bipedal creatures called burnu, the group is rescued by a mysterious purple light and finds the enchanted cottage of Veril Bairnell the Sapient, a two-hundred-year-old Renrian, or member of an ancient order of scholar-alchemists. Veril treats Kai's grievous wounds, brews memory-restoring tonics, and privately warns her not to trust Jadon.

During recovery, Kai and Jadon's intimacy deepens through weapons training and flirtatious exchanges. When battabies, dog-sized leathery-winged creatures, besiege Veril's cottage, Kai tracks them to Azzam Cavern, where she confronts a massive battawhale, the last king of its kind. Sybel appears and forbids Kai from killing the creature. Kai heals it instead, and the battawhale revives, identifying itself as Tazara and revealing that Kai named him in a previous life.

Sybel appears one final time, revealing that Kai's mother was Lyra, a daughter of the immortal Eserime, guardians of the natural world. Kai's father belongs to the Mera, a warrior-protector order. Sybel charges Kai with stopping an entity called the One, whose power threatens to destroy Vallendor and every realm beyond it. She confirms Kai is the Lady of the Verdant Realm, that Kai destroyed a town called Chesterby, and that Kai's amulet is essential to reclaiming her full power.

Philia arrives beaten and bloodied with dire news. Dashmala warriors, a feared nomadic warrior people, kidnapped Olivia. Olivia traded Kai's amulet to Gileon Wake, the emperor's son, in exchange for her freedom. Philia also reveals that Olivia is not Jadon's sister but a runaway formerly betrothed to Gileon; Jadon helped her escape and they posed as siblings. The group journeys toward Caburh, but along the way, a Dashmala commander named Sinth ambushes Veril, killing the Renrian with a pike. Kai erupts in fury, incinerating Sinth and the battalion with fireballs before burying Veril beneath a cinnamon tree.

In Caburh, a Renrian innkeeper named Separi Eleweg the Advertent recognizes Kai and provides luclite armor, a protective rose-gold material salvaged from an ancient conflict called the Great War. After one night at the inn, Gileon Wake arrives and reveals that Jadon is not a blacksmith but the eldest son of Emperor Syrus Wake, a prince missing for four years. A battle erupts in the streets, with Tazara and his battabies fighting Elyn's cursuflies. Kai and Jadon escape, but a soldier's venomous blade poisons Kai. Jadon nurses her to health over three days in a cave, then abandons her at dawn, taking both horses.

Alone, Kai follows a sparkling moth trail for days. She encounters soldiers guarding her amulet, dispatches them, and reclaims the pendant. Following the moths, she reaches the Sea of Devour, a boiling acid-green sea at the base of Mount Devour, where a massive battle rages.

Kai confronts Elyn on the battlefield. Elyn reveals that Kai was manipulated by spies of Danar Rrivae, a traitorous Mera lord known as the Vile One, into destroying Ithlon, the home realm of Kai's mother Lyra, inadvertently killing Lyra. Kai subsequently razed multiple provinces without approval from the Council of High Orders, a governing body that includes Kai's own father, Lord Izariel Megidrail. Elyn, revealed as Sybel's daughter and the Grand Adjudicator, formally sentences Kai to death.

Danar Rrivae manifests as an apparition, unable to touch Vallendor while its Grand Defender still lives. Elyn reveals Jadon is Danar's biological son, a demigod whose true name is Jadon Wake Rrivae. He is Miasma itself; his every touch drained Kai's life force. Jadon declares he chooses Kai over both his creators, proposing they rule Vallendor together. Kai resolves to accept his alliance strategically, planning to use him against her enemies before destroying him. As she moves toward Jadon, Elyn blasts them apart with wind, sending Kai hurtling into the sky.

Kai awakens in volcanic badlands, bleeding but alive, her amulet around her neck. She declares herself the Destroyer of Worlds, confirming her memory has fully returned and she accepts her devastating past. The story continues in subsequent volumes.