The walled city of Tiran runs on magic, its comforts and industry powered by spellwork that only a credentialed elite are permitted to practice. Sciona Freynan, orphaned young and relentlessly ambitious, has spent two decades preparing to break into that elite -- and when she becomes the first woman ever raised to the rank of highmage, she expects triumph. Instead she is met with sabotage and contempt, and the only person assigned to assist her is Thomil, a janitor from the despised Kwen underclass who survived the catastrophe that destroyed his people. As Sciona pushes into research no one wants examined, she and Thomil begin to trace the city's magical power back to its source -- and to a truth Tiran has buried to protect its prosperity. What they uncover forces a harder question than any spell: whether someone who has thrived inside a monstrous system can ever be innocent of it. A standalone work of dark academia and industrial fantasy, this novel pairs an intricate, almost mathematical magic system with an unsparing look at ambition, prejudice, and complicity. First self-published in 2023, it was re-released by Del Rey in 2024, reached the New York Times bestseller list, and was named the best fantasy novel of the year by The Guardian.