In 1295, as the weight of red wedding finery in the Great Capital bent the camels' backs, Kokochin's palm began to burn.
She is the Persian bride chosen by Kublai Khan. The Beichen Pearl in her dowry holds 72 shadows: from Princess Jieyou to the Ashina clan, the blood of every “star-path bride” has condensed into stardust inside the pearl, preserving screams from fire sacrifices, forged marriage contracts, and bones gnawed by sandworms.
No one told her this faraway marriage was a sacrifice. Arghun's stone coffin has long been soaked in the blood pool at the altar of sacred fire. Beneath Kaidu's smile lurk the scales of a sand spirit. Even Kublai Khan's marriage decree is stained with the nail dust of the 72nd bride.
The night a sandstorm swallows the caravan, the Beichen Pearl cracks in her palm for the first time. Fragments like the Milky Way spill out: the scene of a Uighur princess poisoned by her maid in 821, a Persian princess screaming when she discovers her husband is a shadow in 330, and Genghis Khan's daughter roaring at the stars in 1206...
“What they want was never a bride. They want your blood.” Seventy-two voices resound in her ear.
When Persia's sacred fire licks at her wedding dress, Kokochin finally clenches her fist around the shattered stardust. She is not the 73rd sacrifice. She is the one who will blast 72 obsessions into a galaxy
“From the Great Capital to Persia, I'll choose the destination of this wedding journey myself.”
