For Kade Ashworth, a starving scavenger in the ruins of Verath, survival is measured in copper marks and stale bread. Magic is a distant myth. But the myth becomes a nightmare when he uncovers a blind, featureless mask hidden behind a collapsed wall.
The mask anchors itself to his soul, dragging him into the Stage 1 Flicker — a violent affliction of bleeding noses and burning visions of a history that isn't his. He quickly learns the terrifying truth: masks are the sole source of magic in the world, born when the gods themselves strike someone down for discovering something no mortal was meant to know.
Kade cannot throw it away. He cannot run. Armed only with his scavenger's wits, a hard-won debt of training, and a growing paranoia, he sets out to uncover the fate of the mask's original owner — a vanished explorer named Kaye, dead a thousand years, whose story the world tried to erase.
He is not the only one looking. Three ruthless factions have made Verath a hunting ground, each with their own reasons for wanting what he carries — and as Kade edges deeper into the truth, their pursuit only sharpens. The blank, eyeless mask begins to change with every fragment of history he uncovers, unlocking a power to see through lies and reality alike. But power draws attention, and every answer he finds only proves how much further — and how much more dangerous — the road ahead truly is.
The hunt is only beginning. And in a world where truth is the sharpest weapon of all, Kade is about to learn that some truths come with a price no one survives paying twice.
