Fall of the Martial Empire

Prologue

Herein lies an account of the events of Heir:

Far south of the Martial and Scholar Empire, the Kegari, an isolated and desperate people, live a hand-to-mouth existence.

A thousand years earlier, they fled their homeland and arrived on a small spit of rock, led by their savior and queen, Mother Div.

Kegari salvation depends on their windsmithing magic and Loha, a rare magical metal that powers their flying vessels, Sails.

With these Sails, the Kegari raid neighboring nations for food.

In the slums of the Kegari capital, an orphan named Aiz bet-Dafra plots the assassination of a highborn leader.

But she is caught and imprisoned, along with the religious clerics who raised her.

With their aid and that of her best friend, Cero, a windsmither and pilot, she escapes Kegar for the north.

Aiz takes with her a book written by Laia of Serra, which includes a story about Mother Div.

A voice begins to speak from its pages: the trapped spirit of Div herself, urging Aiz to set her free.

Aiz pretends to be a persecuted refugee named Ilar of Ankana and infiltrates the lives of Laia; her husband, Elias Veturius; and their children, Sufiyan, Karinna, Zuriya, and Ruhyan.

She grows dangerously close to Ruh and to Laia and Elias’s ward, Quil, the crown prince of the Empire.

She also discovers that the Empire appears to possess Loha.

When Aiz finally frees Mother Div, the spirit reveals her true nature and murders Ruh to feed Aiz power.

Together, Aiz and Div flee south, with Div eating the hearts of many more children along the way.

Back in Kegar, Aiz kills the highborn ruler and declares herself Tel Ilessi, the leader of her people.

She plots an invasion of the Empire in the hopes of seizing enough Loha to return her people to their homeland across the sea.

More than a year after Aiz set Mother Div free, the Kegari attack.

Within days, the Empire is shattered, its communications severed, its citizenry massacred, its leaders on the run.

Quil, nephew of Empress Helene and heir to the Empire, escapes on a mission for his aunt: to find the spy Tas and a weapon to fight the Kegari.

He travels with his best friend, Sufiyan Veturius, and his cousin Arelia Farrar.

On their journey, they encounter the Jaduna tracker Sirsha Westering, outcast from her own people.

Sirsha has been hired by Elias Veturius to hunt down his son Ruh’s killer, entering a binding magical contract with him that requires her to succeed, or die trying.

The group travels southwest, to Jibaut, where Quil saves Sirsha from execution by her own people, including her sister.

The rescue requires Quil to agree to a magical Adah oath with Sirsha, an unbreakable bond akin to an engagement that deepens as they travel.

Sirsha links Ruh’s murderer, Mother Div, to the Kegari.

She also uncovers the truth: Div is no queen reborn.

She is an unknown creature, powerful and malevolent.

Quil discovers that the girl he knew as Ilar was, in fact, Aiz bet-Dafra, Tel Ilessi of the Kegari and architect of the Empire’s destruction—all in the pursuit of Loha.

In the city of Burku, capital of Ankana, Quil reunites with Tas, who has secured Ikfa, a substance that neutralizes magic and is the key to defeating the Kegari.

Afterward, Quil and his comrades lure Aiz and Cero to Burku.

They kill them, while Sirsha faces off against Mother Div, destroying her.

In the aftermath, Sirsha disappears without a trace.

Aiz and Cero survive their grievous injuries with the aid of rare Kegari magic—bloodsmithing.

Quil and his allies return north, hoping that with the Ikfa, they might finally cast the Kegari out of the Empire for good.

Once back in the Empire, Quil meets with Laia of Serra, who tells him that she is much to blame for Ruh’s death.

Elsewhere, Sirsha has awoken on a distant shore. Indeed, her magical contract with Elias is fulfilled, for she has killed the creature Div. But somehow, Div has returned to life and bound herself to Sirsha.