Recording Names for the Dead

Black rain falls on Rookhaven. In the mortuary shed, an unnamed female corpse calls out the name of Xu Guichen, the corpse dresser. Searching for his younger sister Xu Tang, who vanished ten years ago, he follows clues involving the White Plague, the Black Bell, and the register of the dead into an ancient order that sustains the world through offered names, door keys, and living lamps. Those sacrifices really can save more people, but who has the right to decide someone else's fate? As Xu Guichen records the names of the dead, he learns at the cost of his own memories that remembering a name does not mean possessing the person behind it.