The Prism

In a world where magic is God's ongoing voice, sixteen-year-old Alban Clay is a walking blasphemy. Measured at birth and found empty, he is branded a Hollow—a boy God declined to speak to. He survives as an unnoticed servant at the Academy of Veyle Herz by following one rule above all others: Never be seen. But the Church's sacred instruments only measure magic that flows. Alban does not flow. He keeps. Hidden inside him is the impossible. He can store the raw power saturating the world and shape it into the heat, motion, and light his civilization worships as God's finished speech. Through years of secret experiments, Alban uncovers a terrifying truth: Miracles are not miracles. They are a science. And they obey rules. When a catastrophe forces him to reveal a fraction of his power to save a life, the boy who always measured zero begins attracting exactly the attention he has spent sixteen years avoiding. Scholars start asking questions. A relentless Striver refuses to let inconsistencies die. And Alban's next mandatory measurement is only days away. If the Church discovers why the empty boy is running warm, it won't ask for an explanation. It will cut him open to find one.