The Red Duchess, having fallen ill, left behind a son named Orpheus who would know peace only in the fondness of fractured memories. Alongside his fiery hair, he holds the tainted blood of the Blackwells, who exiled him in favour of the Dagon family's scourge that is his younger half-sister.

Beneath the shadow of his family legacy, one to which he is most unwelcome, Orpheus has departed smothered in spite and disdain. But his fate seems tied to a rather bothersome companion, a boisterous barbarian of Dagon blood. Alongside one another they trek troubled waters, balancing themselves between silver-tongued nobles and relentless bloodshed.

Set in the Nedourian Empire, where the arcane runs rampant and the elite classes rule in absolutes, this story follows these kindred spirits as they find their place in the lands - uncompromising to the costs of others.