A war orphan from the rural south of the Nikara Empire, Rin shocks everyone by acing the Keju, the empire-wide examination that decides a child's future. Her perfect score wins her a place at Sinegard, the elite military academy in the capital, and a way out of the marriage her foster family has arranged for her. But surviving Sinegard is its own kind of war: dark-skinned, poor, and a girl, Rin is despised by her wealthier classmates and tested by cruel instructors. Under the guidance of an eccentric master, she uncovers a dangerous, half-forgotten power, the ability to call on the gods and wield fire through the lost art of shamanism. When the militaristic Federation of Mugen launches a new invasion, Rin's gift becomes a weapon her empire desperately needs, and as atrocity follows atrocity she learns exactly what that power can do, and what it will cost her to use it. Drawing on the history of twentieth-century China, this is a grim, ambitious fantasy that moves from boarding-school rivalry to the horrors of total war, asking how much of herself Rin is willing to burn away in order to win.