National Network for Equitable Library Service

Two thousand years ago, a demon thundered into the skies of Arisa and cast down the First World. She is Suwraith, the Sorrow Bringer. For millennia, She has labored to fulfill Her only vow: Humanity’s extinction.Into this world of city-states – where a person’s Caste determines his Talents and his future – is born Rukh Shektan, a peerless young warrior who has trained since birth in the way of the sword. He becomes lost in the Wildness, the large swaths of land under the Sorrow Bringer’s sway. There, he unwittingly comes to possess Talents not of his Caste. It is a terrible misfortune. According to dogma, such individuals are Tainted – cursed abominations who the holy texts say must be executed without mercy. Such should have been Rukh's fate, but life is never so simple.The Sorrow Bringer has turned Her dread gaze to his home, the radiant Oasis city of Ashoka. And only Rukh can save it.