The young Lady Sophie and Lady Erica arrive at the City of Qui eager to attend the great Festival, not knowing that they have just stepped into a deadly game. Conspiracies, plots, and murder lurk in the alleyways as an ancient and terrible power grows stronger. Rafael, a noble lord and a powerful mage, plots assassination as a student of the Academy of Magic is found dead in the streets. Siegfried Magebane, a servant of the Goddess of Mischief cursed by a dark magic and a darker legend, stalks the shadows whilst Ashton, a teacher of magic, tries to hunt down his student’s murderer.

     All that stands between Sophie and Erica, and the peril that awaits them, is Merrick, a young mercenary haunted by past battles and his own failures. Yet while the shadows lengthen and the hour of the Festival approaches, the two young noblewomen are awakening a power of their own with the potential to bring destruction down upon the entire world: a power that some seek to wield for themselves.

     A young lady with an intrepid heart and a tomboyish streak. Adopted by the Duke and Duchess of Greenfields following her parents’ deaths, Sophie has grown up as part of their family, growing close to her half-sister, Erica. Yet, despite the expectations that come with her station, Sophie has always longed for freedom and adventure, little knowing that – due to the dangerous force that lies within her – she is about to find herself at the centre of events that will threaten the entire world.

     Daughter of the Duke and Duchess, and Sophie’s adopted sister, she is the very model of a noble lady. Erica meets her aristocratic responsibilities with elegance and grace. Despite lacking Sophie’s desire for adventure, she loves her sister dearly and has made it her mission to protect her. Yet Erica has her own secrets that she has kept from her parents and even Sophie: she has the gift of magic, with power over lightning, and with it the fear of being torn from her home to train at the Academy of Mages. But in trying to keep Sophie safe, she may be forced to use all her gifts.

     A mercenary who has yet to find his peer in combat. After an impossible choice resulted in the deaths of his comrades and his dismissal from the military, Merrick has made a new life in the mercenary’s guild, desiring nothing more from the world. Though his qualities would make him a talented leader, and an asset to the guild in this position, Merrick’s wounds run too deep for him to lead troops again. Yet whatever danger may threaten, it will find Merrick standing between it and innocent lives.

 
     A talented young battle mage, capable of controlling the storms themselves. Ashton came from nothing and has risen high: all the way to a leadership position in the Academy of Mages. A good man who navigates the complex politics of his position the best he can, few would believe that Ashton keeps any secrets. But there are certain abilities that Ashton is wise enough to keep to himself.

     Siegfried Magebane is a force upon which the whole empire turns. A wielder of shadow magic and advised by a demonic familiar, he is the very embodiment of chaos, a trickster who upends the political game and to whom countless mages have hunted without success. His only loyalty is to the trickster god, Jynxx, and to the companions he has made through his bloody adventures. Yet even as Siegfried revels in the chaos he causes, he struggles to control the violent power within him, refusing to let it wreak unchecked destruction. No-one would think to call him a hero, and fewer still would choose him as an ally.

     Lord Rafael Aemilius is a minor noble, posted to the far edge of the realm and entrusted with a deadly duty: to guard the Empire from the dragons far to the north. A gifted mage and a peerless warrior, he is dedicated to his purpose and only seeks to sharpen himself into a more deadly weapon. Yet as a new power rises in the Kindle Empire, Rafael finds himself taking orders from a new master and protecting Amalia from a peril just as great as dragons, whatever the cost.