An epic Norse fantasy packed with tattooed mages wielding unbridled spells, meddling gods, dragon-riders, and twisted mythology. Only half the recruits that undergo the Ritual survive to become Written mages. Only they can wield the fiercest of magics, to protect the Arka, until either death or the madness takes them. Five scholars of Arfell have been assassinated. A spellbook has gone missing - a powerful summoning manual from the time of elves and fire-born daemons. The Arkmages are running out of time and options, and the world is once again on the brink of war with the Siren dragon-riders. It falls to Farden - one of the Arka's most powerful yet troubled Written mages - to keep Emaneska from falling into chaos. Entangled in a web of lies and politics, Farden is tasked with hunting down the assassin, and recovering the spellbook before it falls into the wrong hands, and the world is cast into shadow. It will mean fighting his way across savage Emaneska and back, a land infested with wyrms, marauders, and betrayal. It will take every fibre of his will, every scrap of magic in his bones, and if he falls, so shall the world. Welcome to Emaneska.