Step into the bleak, ash-choked village of Alderwick, where starvation is a daily reality and the empire's so-called protection feels more like a curse. In this gripping introduction, meet Emily Jackson, a resilient young woman who measures her hunger by the thickness of the gray powder settling on her windowsill. Surviving on bitter nettle water, Emily still finds the strength to show extraordinary compassion, giving her last morsel of stale bread to a feverish neighbor child. But in Alderwick, kindness is a luxury few can afford. As the dreaded iron tax bell rings out, echoing with the cruel authority of a boot against a door, the weary villagers are summoned to the square. With the gleaming, gold-veined mountains of an oppressive empire looming in the distance, Emily must face the harsh levies of a regime that has stripped her home of its color, its harvest, and its hope.