On Asar, history has become myth. Millennia-old experiments have become races of beings with cultures and dreams of their own, and their creators, an advanced race from afar, have birthed myths and legends, abandoned ruins and technologies, and a destiny on which the planet's future balances. A few still walk the planet as gods.

A prophecy speaks of one who will be born, one with the blood needed to reawaken the abandoned technology of the ancient Zemurians who fled the planet in shame long ago. But few have time to contemplate prophecy in a world torn by war, ravaged by a savage despot.

The Panjatai Hegemony rules most of the known world. It wages war with its neighbors, fighting to subdue the wild warriors of the Ferghana Steppe and the tiger men of Oujda, the Ukar'a lizard-men of Thibur and the desert dwellers of Ashmara. The Panjatai ruler's lust for power is complete, but a nightmare haunts his sleep. A nightmare of one who will end his reign. A boy, wielding a Zemurian blade, at the head of an army the likes of which Asar has not seen in three thousand years. The one foretold. The Hegemon will stop at nothing to change the fate he suffers each night in his sleep.

Maj is a simple boy, raised in a mountain village far from everything, on the outskirts of the Hegemony. To those around him he is an outsider: though his da is from Kalmat, his ma was unknown, a foreigner. Trained as a warrior by his da, Zoltan, whose skill with a blade is legendary though the source of that skill a mystery, Maj is caught between forces he cannot control bent on his destruction, his life depending on his companions, his innate gifts, and the guidance of a god.

Fleeing across Asar with death on his heels, Maj must race against time, through deadly jungles and sprawling cities, ancient ruins and vast oceans, searing deserts and dark fortresses, to learn to control his power, discover the legacy of the ancient ones, and fulfill his destiny.

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