Aura is power. Power is status. Molam has neither.

Molam lives his second chance at life defined by a strength he will never possess. In a world of auramancers who reinforce their bodies and command the elements, he survives through careful planning, sharp observation, and staying one step ahead of those who want him dead.

After surviving a theft that should have killed him, the Oracle binds him to one final task: infiltrate an Imperial city to steal the World Tree’s elderwood—difficult for even the powerful, impossible for him.

To succeed, Molam must take leadership of a mismatched group assembled by the Oracle. As famine tightens, tempers fray, and Imperial forces close in, the walls close around Molam and his secrets.

One mistake will reveal what he is hiding: he has no aura at all, and no right to walk among those who have trained with it their entire lives.