Draysky was born to die on the ridge. Like his father before him, his fate was to harvest elemental treasures until the dust claimed his lungs. As the lowest of society, a Knotted, the thin cord around his neck signifies to all his low rank. He would never progress as a mage, nor learn of the forbidden runes of the kingdom magicians.

When Draysky looks away from the northern mountains, he dreams to buy his freedom and escape the mines forever. But the crystal mines don’t relinquish claimed lives so easily. They draw him in deeper, pulling him into their magical depths, and when Draysky discovers the source of their treasures, he’s left with a choice. Return to his labor, and be grateful for the years he has left, or risk his life by seizing the mines’ power for progression magic to secure his freedom.

Far away, tremors shake the city of Consuo. Lucille, progression mage prodigy and Lock of Heaven One, smells trouble as petty raiders grow sly. Under her guardianship, the gates stay closed—keeping monsters and wild power behind their locks. Every day, she is all too aware that a single slip up will destroy not only her perception of herself, a skilled progression magician once laughed upon for inadequacy, but also countless lives. Already, she has leveled up once, and under the watchful gaze of her mother, is expected to do so again.

Also feeling the tremors is Merrill, a street beggar turned businesswoman. She alone defends her magical garden, stocked with powerful elementals, from the hands of the keepers. Slowly, they close in around her, trying to pry her free with threats and false promises. But Merrill hangs on, as her motivations turn from profits to revenge. Together, Merrill and Lucille's lives intertwine as the balance of heaven and earth shakes, and secrets hidden for hundreds of years surface once again.

Deep beneath the city, a lowly servant has found the source of the tremors. And he knows they will only grow worse.