Tyrone and his crew wait in the blistering heat, eyes fixed on the ocean as it shimmers beneath the tropical sun. The Prangians aren’t known for their punctuality, and the wait is brutal. The engine Tyrone’s planning to buy could pay huge dividends for him and his crew, but it means a big cash payment, and that means Tyrone needs to be ready for a fight. Sure, the Union is still going strong, despite the Gvarentine Rebellion and its aftermath. Trade is picking up again, and Skoi is the best place for an experienced captain like Tyrone. But it’s a fragile peace, which is only going to get more fragile as new advances in metallurgy, alchemy, engineering and other fields start to bring the technology of the Empire of Kargia back into operation. Beneath Skoi, beneath Prangia, beneath Gvarence - even beneath the floor of the ocean under his ship - Tyrone knows there’s an entire world waiting to be rediscovered. What he doesn’t know yet is that the Prangian ship is carrying something that could kickstart that rediscovery. Ariel is one of Prangia’s youngest captains, and definitely less experienced in business than most of the others. In battle, though, there aren’t many who’d stand a chance against her. Embittered by a difficult life, and fiercely loyal to Prangia, she’s been entrusted with selling an expensive archaeological find and means to complete the mission, whether or not that means slaughtering a Skoian crew in the process. She’s already had plenty of practice - she’s had a score to settle against Gvarence, and to Ariel’s mind, vengeance is going to require a lot more dead Gvarentine captains. Selling this engine will mean a chance to hit Gvarence harder than it’s ever been hit before - as long as the Skoians hold up their end of the bargain. And, of course, as long as nobody realizes that she and her ship are carrying something incredibly powerful and even more incredibly dangerous. Far away lies the inhospitable, fabulously wealthy land of Ausron, which lost contact with the rest of the continent long ago. Centuries have passed since the Battle of Alamandu brought an abrupt end to both Kargia and Qurz and set the technological clock back by a millennium. As these empires came to an end, so did the technology necessary to exploit Ausron’s resources. Imbibing traces of powerful alchemical ores from childhood, the remaining Ausronians live in a world dominated by magical and alchemical forces of unimaginable power, whose potential the Ausronians have only just begun to tap. Prangia, too, has tried and failed to tap into these resources. What might happen when the immense natural power of Ausron meets the increasing technological sophistication of the Union is anyone’s guess, but everyone knows that it won’t be long before these two worlds collide.