The Salt of Forgotten Names
In the grey ash-fields of Threnody, where every mound looks like the last and the wind tastes of old fire, gravedigger Kael Vesper strikes something that should have stayed buried: a name. Not just any name, a name bound to the Antediluvian, older than the Salt Sea itself, powerful enough to make the Hollow King send his name-thralls hunting and the Pale Choir convene a tribunal. Kael knows the cost of carrying a name. He has seen what the Salt-Children became when theirs were taken: hollow-eyed, obedient, almost smiling as they walked into the tide. His sister Isara wears that smile now. When Lady Cressida Elwin offers him passage across the Salt Sea and a chance to reclaim what was stolen, Kael must choose: bury the name and survive as he is, or speak it and become the weapon his enemies already believe him to be. Brother Othric warns him of the price. Master Aldric Vesper's Cantos speak of a deeper betrayal. And somewhere in the wreckage of the world, a dying pilgrim carries the one secret that could unmake the throne of ash, if Kael is willing to pay what it demands.