Seleste has to go north. She knows that much for certain. Something is waiting for there; something of cosmic importance. She does not know what it is exactly, but she can feel it calling her with every fibre of her being. The voice in her dreams told her: Go north—at any cost.
As she prepares to depart her home in the Great Temple on the Isle of the Blessed alongside her handmaiden and constant companion, Mina, the pair of young women cross paths with Jari, a handsome wanderer and mercenary, a man as cold and cruel as such a life demands. But as their adventuring party sets sail into perilous waters, there are times when Jari looks at Seleste and his eyes are touched by a warmth and gentleness he has forgotten he is capable of, prompting an intimate connection both struggle to understand.
Now, abruptly shipwrecked on the shores of an alien land, Seleste, Jari, and a handful of other survivors must band together and hope to survive the harsh terrain of an unknown landscape—and the unpredictably dangerous people who live there.
The road north is a long and arduous one, long enough for Seleste to learn that the most terrifying of monsters may not be the ones that claw from the shadows, but rather, the people they misplace their trust in along the way. And for Jari, it’s a long enough road to watch his own demons terrorise the first person he has cared about in many long years. And the end of it all, when confronted with the mystical force that has been calling to her, Seleste must decide how much she is willing to sacrifice for a life she had never imagined possible.
