Once upon a time, in an uncertain future, the world enters a second dark age. An age when magic swallows all aspects of life, for better or for worse. The history of humanity is lost in the mist of time, but musical legends turn to myth, and then to blasphemous deities that are worshiped by the lower class, humans. Lingering traces of humanity are buried beneath the unknowing feet of their descendants, who live under the fist of the Ivory Block, a magical theocracy.
In the city of Grande York, a city of trade, magical industry, and live music, scaly beasts are just transportation, enchanted stones play music from human musicians, stubborn Merpeople rule the ocean, and even topless dancers use magic to enhance their stage performances.
If you told Malika Luna Hamilton a week ago that she and her best friend, Emoc Stone Lightman, would be tangled up in one of the biggest, non-magical smuggling operations of the century, she would have called you a liar, and illogical.
Fate, however, is a cruel mistress with a dark sense of humor.
The mysterious and elusive criminal known only as "Roy" has a different agenda than what religious tradition has maintained for thousands of years. Machinery and ancient human artifacts are as rare as they are illegal and sacrilegious in a world that depends on magic, and that is just what Roy has been smuggling into Grande York. His name strikes fear in the citizens as they read the latest news of the blasphemer with dark, non-magical designs, that threaten not only the city's safety, but the ubiquitous religion of magic, Ahuram.
In her fast city Malika is just one more citizen devoted to the Scriptures of Ahuram, living in constant guilt for her less-than-noble lifestyle.
But some people just have to have their cages rattled to know that they're in one...
In the city of Grande York, a city of trade, magical industry, and live music, scaly beasts are just transportation, enchanted stones play music from human musicians, stubborn Merpeople rule the ocean, and even topless dancers use magic to enhance their stage performances.
If you told Malika Luna Hamilton a week ago that she and her best friend, Emoc Stone Lightman, would be tangled up in one of the biggest, non-magical smuggling operations of the century, she would have called you a liar, and illogical.
Fate, however, is a cruel mistress with a dark sense of humor.
The mysterious and elusive criminal known only as "Roy" has a different agenda than what religious tradition has maintained for thousands of years. Machinery and ancient human artifacts are as rare as they are illegal and sacrilegious in a world that depends on magic, and that is just what Roy has been smuggling into Grande York. His name strikes fear in the citizens as they read the latest news of the blasphemer with dark, non-magical designs, that threaten not only the city's safety, but the ubiquitous religion of magic, Ahuram.
In her fast city Malika is just one more citizen devoted to the Scriptures of Ahuram, living in constant guilt for her less-than-noble lifestyle.
But some people just have to have their cages rattled to know that they're in one...
"A prowling spider caught our scent,
we will be stalked like hapless prey,
something wild, something ancient,
a bloody butterfly flutters our way..."
we will be stalked like hapless prey,
something wild, something ancient,
a bloody butterfly flutters our way..."