“What? Explain.” Arawn demanded, surprised.
“We had to prevent them from having sex with her! While she was unconscious!” Horace growled, frowning. “One of whom was the Anesthetist himself.”
A short blurb revealing a mundane day with Empress Desdemona dealing with American politicians, and why she can’t hold on to an assistant.
The fall of an Empire, the scourging of a continent, the despair and starvation of the deeps… A Paladin, A Handmaiden, A Pilgrim and the Daughter of a Fallen God, their seemingly hopeless quest becoming more desperate before they can even leave the Westerlands. The Grand Lodge of the Resonant, the titanic source of the Resonant’s reality-warping power, lies fallow and silent, The Logos Mnemosyne still cloistered with her oldest friend, Samuel the Caladonian, as he desperately searches for some knowledge of the past that can tip the balance in the favour of those still Loyal to Maou, Tyris and Ammit. As the burden borne by Reitia, the Rafnsdottir, becomes more and more evident, can her sister Jelena offer her any succor?
Twenty Years has passed since the Apophean Eclipse, where the world once again was thrown into chaos by a confluence of realities. Locked in an interminable stand-off, Gods, Humans, and Mamono can do little more than hold the tenuous balance of the cold war which has gripped the known world since the Fall of The Raven and murder of Nagarani Lyssa, and the assumption of the Thrones of Hamunapt, Heliopolis and Memphis by Apophis, now styling herself as God-Queen, the Serpent of Midnight. In Caladon, the Taurean Jelena, only daughter of Horus and Hathor prepares to undergo the rites which will anoint her as a Handmaiden in service to her mother, making her a Priestess of Ammit in her own right. And amongst it all, still as inscrutiable as ever, the mysterious form of the girl Reitia drifts, orphaned daughter of Lyssa and Corvus, now ward of the leaders of the Ammitian faith. But peace so tenuously won cannot last forever, and the Agents of Apophis stand ready to strike. But even their guile must wait upon the Will of Ammit, who holds the very keys of death in her taloned hand, and history shows that she is not shy about unleashing the teeming dead when an irritant becomes too annoying…
Once again demonstrating his mastery of the seas, Captain Arin has agreed to bring Corvus, Lyssa, Michael, and the Man known as Walker to the Australs, the legendarily hostile island to the southeast. There, both Michael and Walker hope to find the answers to their individual conundrums. Lyssa’s past threatens to waylay them, and it will be for her new friends to prove their worth. Can they protect her from the grudges of Heliopolis? And can Michael truly ever assume the mantle of a Hero? Meanwhile the Logos’s ‘Gift’ to Lucifer has thrown disarray into the harmony of the High Heavens, and Lord Azrael sees an advantage too tempting to ignore. But is this a chalice he can take up? Or will the limitations of his tenuous mortality find him wanting, when a Scion plays the brutal and labyrinthine politics of the Hells?
A century and more has passed since the Divine Redemption, where the acts of the Gods through the Logos of Resonance rendered the half-forms of Mamono whole, and the world was given its first true chance at peace. But in the midst of this blessed dawn comes a new force. Azrael, Lord of Hell and Black Knight of Destruction has abandoned the heavens and seeks his own path, teased ever downwards by the undeniable temptation of the Lilim Lyra. The Fledgeling Order of Amaranth in his sights, will the Scions of God-Before-Tyris be able to find their own paths as the Heroes of this New World? And in the snowy north, The Throne of Valhael reveals its own horror, and the Logos of Resonance begins to reveal its own desires…
The revelation of Jessie’s true nature, as well as continued pressure from traditionalist landholders threatens Charles’s vision of a more egalitarian Caladon. Meanwhile Samuel makes a startling discovery on the nature of resonance, one which gives him a rare insight into the workings of the ancient world. Lloyd is presented with the most precious secret and treasure of the Tyrisian faith, and finds himself swept up in a destiny which cannot be avoided. Maou, the Demon Lord, sets in motion her own plans, desperate to undo her mistake before the feared twilight, but the question still remains unanswered, Can Human and Mamono ever truly coexist? Or is one species truly destined for oblivion? And when Gods take hands in the affairs of mortals, can any truly be free of their commandments?
Samuel arrives in the Hub City of Magisterium, where the machinations of the continental nobles threaten to engulf him in intrigue and betrayal. Unknown to him, his brother Lloyd makes plans to confront him, convinced by the Conclave of the Faithful that he bears the forbidden taint of Mamono energy. Meanwhile, back at Caladon, Charles races against time to get to the bottom of the Conspiriacy which threatened the life of his father, Baron William, in the face of Jeremy’s growing insanity. But what good can come, of persuading the dead to tell their tales?
