Rune Draden returns from war to find his rank stripped and his purpose hollow. Sent west beyond the reach of kings, he walks into a land unraveling-where shrines bleed, old gods blink awake, and a girl who should be dead is waiting.
As Rune steps deeper into cursed soil and forgotten names, one truth becomes clear: what rots beneath the earth doesn't always stay buried.
The blade he carries was never forged-and it remembers what the kingdom would rather forget.