They called her Blackie. A name spat like a curse in the magic-drenched town of Crowsight, branding the one girl born without a spark. For Ellis Vane, the annual Destiny appraisal was just another ritual of shame... until the black testing orb didn't just lie dormant—it shattered, revealing an impossible, devouring darkness within her.
Whisked away on the groaning dimensional train by the gruff military liaison Professor Miro, Ellis is plunged into the sprawling, spell-forged metropolis of Hephaestia City. Here, arcane energies bleed into clattering steam pipes, and the imposing towers of Noren Academy scrape a sky lit by magic and industry.
Ellis walks a razor's edge. Can she master the consuming darkness before it masters her? Before the gathering storm of magic, ambition, and ancient grudges tears her fragile new world apart? The girl with no magic might hold the key to saving everything – or unleashing oblivion. Her story begins where light fears to tread.
"Wildflowers often sense the spring much earlier."