In the seven hundred and twenty-first year of the Empire, the black fog crossed the Great Wall and began devouring the northern frontier.
On that very day, Ryan, abandoned by his family, received an exiled territory with just forty-seven subjects left and a lord’s contract that let him see other people’s hidden talents.
A lame stable hand can raise war behemoths capable of crushing city walls. Every time his talent advances, a beast tide follows the scent of his blood.
A timid gray-eared cook can make magical rations to feed an army of ten thousand. Every time his recipes evolve, one of the territory’s granaries is sure to rot.
A voiceless girl can draw the only accurate map through the black fog. For every mile she draws, she forgets a part of her life.
Everyone urges Ryan not to sign.
But he pushes the contract before them all.
“The price isn’t yours alone to pay.”
“Sign your names. From today on, this territory will pay it with you.”
Years later, the realms of kings vanish one after another into the black fog. Only the lights of the north stretch across the sky like a sea of stars.
And the original forty-seven people with nowhere else to go now stand atop the walls of a kingdom of all races.
