Previous
Intro
In order to escape an arranged marriage, Rin throws herself into two years of studying for the Keju, a test administered to teens throughout Nikan. She hopes to score high enough to earn admission to Sinegard Academy—and she’s successful. A provincial orphan, Rin struggles to adjust to life at Sinegard. Her overwhelmingly wealthy classmates look down on her, and she has only one friend, Kitay. When Master Jun, the combat master, kicks Rin out of his class and forbids anyone from tutoring her, Rin sneaks books out of the library to try to learn on her own. She practices in the unoccupied Lore garden until, one day, the eccentric Lore master, Jiang, catches her. Rin intrigues him, so he decides to teach her himself. By the end of the year, Rin is a skilled martial artist, and she beats everyone in her class’s Trial fights—but when she fights her archnemesis Nezha, she discovers she’s hot to the touch—literally burning with rage.
Jiang cools her with a touch and begs her to pledge Lore: she is one of two surviving Speerlies and is capable of calling the Phoenix, the vengeful god of fire, and she needs to learn from Jiang to be safe. Altan Trengsin, Sinegard’s star student and the other Speerly, wasn’t allowed to study with Jiang, and Jiang believes he’s now a lost cause. Rin ultimately accepts. (Nikan annexed Speer a thousand years ago and used “bloodthirsty” and “uncivilized” Speerlies as soldiers; during the last Poppy War, the Federation of Mugen committed genocide and razed the island.)
Rin spends the next two years learning about gods, spirituality, and meditation. The first time she takes hallucinogens to meditate, she encounters a Woman who won’t let her enter the Pantheon (the home of the gods) and summon the Phoenix. While Rin comes to see the beauty in Jiang’s way of looking at the world, she disagrees with him in important ways: she wants to be a good military commander and find ways to use what she’s learning to help Nikan win the coming war with the Federation of Mugen.
War finally breaks out, and students are absorbed into units stationed at Sinegard. When the Federation attempts to take the city, it’s a bloodbath and Rin watches many classmates die. She takes some poppy seeds, though, and summons the Phoenix, burning the Federation general. To save her when the general continues to try to kill Rin, Jiang opens a rip in the world’s fabric, letting something through. Then, he disappears.
Following the battle, Rin learns that she’s being sent to serve with the Cike, the Militia’s tiny 13th division of shamans and assassins—and this is not an honor. But Altan Trengsin is the commander. He and Rin travel to Khurdalain, a Nikara port city, which is under siege by the Federation. With Altan’s tutelage, Rin becomes a skilled fighter, though she remains too frightened to call the Phoenix. This eventually sours her relationship with Altan, whom she confusingly sees as a brother but also loves. For his part, Altan grows increasingly despondent and unpredictable as he takes on more and more responsibility for the war effort—which despite his efforts and some success, isn’t going well. Rin finds some solace when she and Nezha, now a much humbler soldier, reunite and become friends. Together, they fight their enemies and Rin kills a chimei, a creature that can convincingly assume any person’s identity—and Rin realizes this is one of the creatures that came through the void Jiang created.
Altan’s deputy, Chaghan, returns from a mysterious scouting mission. Soon after, the Federation attacks Khurdalain with toxic gas, killing numerous civilians and soldiers—including Nezha. Enraged because Altan wouldn’t let Rin save Nezha from the gas, Rin is able to call the Phoenix. Confused, she asks Chaghan for help: he can traverse the spirit world, and she needs him to help her figure out how she can consistently call the Phoenix. In the spirit world, they visit the Talwu and engage in a divination ritual. Rin finds the process confusing, but to Chaghan, the message is clear: the Federation has already attacked Golyn Niis, Nikan’s important military stronghold in the country’s center.
The Cike travel to Golyn Niis, where they find that the Federation murdered and mutilated thousands, civilians and soldiers alike. They discover fewer than a thousand survivors, including Kitay. Over the next few weeks, Rin is horrified to discover that Altan is addicted to opium, though she develops some empathy for him when Chaghan shares with her that Altan grew up in a Federation research facility that conducted brutal human experiments on Speerlies. Rin eventually tries opium herself and pledges herself to Altan. They’re going to go to the Chuluu Korikh, a mountain with a prison under it that contains shamans whose gods have taken over their minds and bodies. Altan wants to let them out and turn them into an army, which he believes will help Nikan achieve victory.
In the Chuluu Korikh, Rin and Altan first discover Jiang, who immured himself after ripping the hole in the universe. He remembers now that he’s not human. Rather, he’s the Gatekeeper, whose job it is to protect the human realm from the gods—and so he believes his former students are being extremely foolish trying to wake up gods. Rin and Altan decide to break Feylen, a former Cike whom Altan immured about a year ago, anyway. Despite Altan’s optimism, the Feylen he knew is gone: his god is totally in charge of Feylen’s body, and he escapes.
When Rin and Altan leave the Chuluu Korikh, they’re immediately captured by Federation soldiers. They’re taken to the research facility on the coast, where Dr. Shiro—the doctor and scientist who experimented on Altan when Altan was a child—tortures them and shares that the Empress sold out Nikan to Mugen—and Rin and Altan to him. He also injects them with heroin. The heroin sends Rin and Altan immediately to the spirit world, and they decide to travel back in time to learn about Speer and the Speerlies. The Speerlies’ ghosts tell Rin how to get to the temple on Speer and call the Phoenix; this will allow her to avenge the Speerlies’ years of suffering. When Rin and Altan wake back up in the real world, Altan burns down the research facility, sacrificing himself. Rin is thrown into the sea.
Rin swims to Speer and finds her way to the underground temple. She calls the Phoenix and asks it to destroy Mugen. It makes it clear to her that while it craves violence and blood, it doesn’t care about Mugen—this particular act of destruction is something Rin, not it, wants. But it causes a volcano to explode on Mugen, killing everyone on the island. This experience is so painful that Rin passes out.
Rin wakes up on a ship with the Cike and Kitay. Kitay, to her surprise, isn’t supportive of what she did. He suggests it makes her less than human. Rin, however, doesn’t care. She and Chaghan vow to continue fighting to save Nikan, avenge Altan, and unseat the Empress.
