Ember Heretics

Scavenger Kaelen Voss earns his living hauling salvage from the gutted habitats the Veil Dominion left to rot in Sector 9. But what he pulls from the ribcage of a collapsed ferrocrete ruin is no ordinary wreck. The Dominion called it heresy. The Dominion erased the heretics who built it. And now someone wants Kaelen dead for dragging it back into the light. When his sister Cassia is taken to guarantee his silence, running stops being an option. His only allies are Jorik Cain, the captain of the Ophelia's Wake and a man with debts of his own, and a growing band of outcasts who refuse to forget the empire's crimes. A hooded figure in the ashfields whispers coordinates Kaelen cannot ignore. Sable Reyes, Mira Solenne, and Tomas Kade each carry pieces of a truth too dangerous to speak aloud. Blackwood inspectors are tightening the net. And Dr. Yenna Strait, who once served the Dominion itself, knows exactly what Kaelen has unearthed. As the Dominion's dormant machines stir beneath the rust and Lyra-9's signal pulses through the dead sectors, Kaelen must decide what kind of man he wants to be. He can sell the secret, vanish with Cassia, and let the heresy stay buried. Or he can light it again, and watch the Veil Dominion burn a second time. Some truths refuse to stay dead. Some heretics refuse to stop burning.