The gods are dead. Their power remains. When a meteor storm scorches the skies above Tyrassea, long-buried shards begin to stir—relics once worshiped, now reawakened. To some, they are divine. To others, they are weapons. As the empires gather for the Great Convocation, Princess Kaelira Tyrasson is forced into a deadly tradition: the Fortyfold, where noble heirs battle for her hand in marriage. Among them stands Prince Varén of Acerados—a warrior who refuses the game, yet may hold the key to her freedom. Far from the pageantry, the legendary Myrmidons raid ancient relic sites. What they find there, what they awaken, was never meant to rise again. In the west, a peasant girl named Jeanne begins to speak in tongues of fire and light. Some call her a prophet. Others, a heretic. As civil war tears through the kingdom of Élarion, her name becomes a banner—and a warning. In the east, the shards are studied like scripture. In the south, they are feared as curses. And in the west, they are killing in the name of faith. In a world where ancient technology masquerades as divinity, and prophecy may be a prison written in code, the storm has already begun. And empires will shatter before the truth is revealed.