Two realms. One thread between them. The forest of Shadowglade has begun to listen — and somewhere, far above, even the Archangels can no longer afford to look away from what Drexel has set in motion.
Heaven
The divine realm of the 13 Gods
The highest realm — seat of the thirteen Gods, where divine law is kept and angelic essence returns when an angel dies cleanly. Drexel's whole project is, at its core, an effort to make sure essence never returns here again.
Infernum
Hell · the dominion of Varythos, God of the Infernum
The underworld realm Varythos rules, formed where corruption pooled. Not a punishment — a containment. The lid on the well. Krozar, Archangel of Destruction, dwells here as Varythos's strangest weapon.
The East Walks to Vextar
The carriage came up the long road from Darklume in a weather that did not, properly speaking, belong to any season. It had been autumn at the cathedral. It was, by the third day of the carriage's progress west, half-winter at the inland posthouses and half-spring at the lowland fords, and the sky between had not, in the duration of the journey, decided which of the two it intended to commit to.
The Council of Five Hears Itself
Lord-General Maerwyn was the first man at the council table on the morning the Five convened. He was always the first man. He had, over fourteen years in the office, made it his small private discipline to be in the chamber with the chair pulled out and the maps laid against the right edge before any of the Five arrived, on the principle that a Lord-General who was already at his place when his colleagues entered did not, by the small soft mechanics of the room, need to be deferred to in any of the arrivals.
The Letter from Avarath
She found the letter on the third afternoon, by accident, in a place a princess of Krypton was not — by any standing rule of the household — supposed to be.
The Night the Cathedral Stayed Shut
Silas had, by the third week of the new season, stopped opening the cathedral doors at night.
A few of the names every reader needs to know before the story turns.
Weapons, sigils, and bound essences the Gods would rather have stayed forgotten.
Begin where it broke.
Every name in this codex earned its place by changing the chronicle. Open the book, or follow the timeline that led here.