"Letos" by Alexey Pekhov, summary Automatic translate

This book is an epic fantasy about a ruined magical world, written in 2014. The novel describes the beginning of the difficult journey of three exiles forced to join forces to survive the harsh realities of the Age of Oblivion. The work won the Mir Fantastiki magazine award for best Russian-language fantasy book of 2014.

The novel opens the "Blue Flame" series. The story continues in the following books: "Blue Flame," "Taloris," "White Fire," "The Shadow of Ingenium," and "Apple Blossom." This book is the first in a series.

The destruction of the old world

The prologue reveals the tragedy of the Cataclysm. The once-great city is engulfed in white silence. The Bound One, a great wizard who lost the battle, sits on a crystal throne. His left hand is fused into the crystal. His apprentice, Tion, comes to him. The mentor accuses his guest of allying with the Astore people. The apprentice condemns the Bound One for his pact with the Shautt demons, which destroyed civilization. Magic leaves reality forever. A new era begins.

The events unfold 1,000 years later. Theo is a talented acrobat in a traveling circus. He and the magician Henrin discover an ancient statue of Arila. The performers attempt to sell the artifact to an antique dealer in the city of Taver. Local aristocrat Ian Erbet decides to seize the find by force. The guards kill Henrin. The statue suddenly awakens ancient magic. The candle flames turn blue. A shaut emerges from the shadows and slaughters the nobles. Theo narrowly escapes across the rooftops into the darkness.

Shadows and Killers

Laviani is an old and experienced assassin. People call them "jays." She is hiding from the wrath of Borg, the leader of the Night Clan from the city of Pubir. Mercenaries are on her trail. She coldly kills five pursuers in the forest, using her combat experience and a magical butterfly tattoo that grants incredible speed. Later, fate brings her together with Theo at an inn. The bounty hunter Zim is attempting to capture an acrobat. Laviani saves the young man, quickly slitting Zim’s throat and dispersing his guards. Soon, Theo begins to experience strange seizures. A dark whirlpool mark appears on his back. Laviani realizes a terrible truth: the acrobat is slowly turning into a Hollow. The magic of the other side is draining life.

The third heroine is Sharon. The girl lives on the Lethos archipelago. She works as a wayfinder. In this harsh land, the dead rise at night as lost souls. Sharon uses white magic, a steel stylus, and bone dice to find and calm the living corpses. One night, during a fierce storm, she battles a dead lighthouse keeper and a dead tanner. The girl returns home and shows the way to a dead servant. Then she notices a shautt in the room, hidden in Henrin’s dead body. A demon kidnaps little Naila, Sharon’s adopted daughter. The monster demands her to come to the cursed, dead city of Taloris.

The way to the north

Laviani decides to seek refuge from the Night Clan on her native Lethos. Theo follows her. They sail on a flimsy ship. A fierce storm erupts. The ship crashes onto sharp reefs. The Sea of Dead Men engulfs the sailors. Laviani is attacked by water creatures called weens. Jay uses the magical tattoos on her back. The designs grant her superhuman speed and strength. The woman kills the sea creatures with a long knife. The weens rescue the drowning Theo, sensing his dark mark. The survivors struggle to reach the rocky shore.

Theo finds Sharon on the streets of Nimad at night. She offers the exiles shelter. The three heroes’ paths cross. Shautt finds the acrobat and Laviani. The demon threatens them, forcing them to accompany Sharon. The monster promises to rid Theo of the dark mark and promises to reveal the location of the Borg to the jay. The trio unites. They take a ferry to the capital of Lethos, the city of Aranth. From there, the travelers plan to reach Taloris. Sharon hopes to save her daughter.

Flight and unification

Along the way, the heroes share fragments of ancient stories. They discuss the deception of the world’s creators — the Astoré people, trapped beyond reality. The exiles mutated, giving birth to the Shautt demons. Later, the Bound One, fearing the Astoré’s return, made a deal with the demons. His apprentice, Tion, stopped his teacher, destroyed the capital, and forever deprived the civilization of magic. Now, the remnants of its former glory are scattered across the islands of Lethos. The heroes sail on a ferry past colossal underwater monuments. Enormous stone hands and temple domes are hidden beneath the waves. Along the way, Theo suffers from the smell of orange — the magic of the mark alters the perception of reality. Milvio, a random fellow traveler, charms Sharon with tales of distant lands.

In Arantxa, the heroes witness an execution. The Letians drown a man in the sea for harboring a deceased relative. The archipelago’s harsh laws forbid the hiding of the dead, who become lost. Milvio condemns the cruelty of the punishment, while Sharon defends the traditions of her people.

Clash in Arantxa

Two other Night Clan assassins, Clero and Quint, are hot on Laviani’s trail. They stop in Arantxa. Clero brutally murders a bystander at an inn. The assassins encounter Milvio. The fair-haired swordsman from the south proves to be an incredibly skilled warrior. Milvio kills the fat Quint in a fair sword fight. Clero tracks Laviani down to the rocky coastline. The old jay defeats her young rival in a brutal fight. Laviani burns off her last magical tattoo to survive, making her skin as hard as steel.

The heroes reach Taloris. The dead city rested at the bottom of the sea, then rose to the surface again. Approaching the ruins, they discover a camp of malg — ferocious cannibals created by demons. Theo distracts a squad of malg. Acrobat leads the monsters into the fog, demonstrating feats of agility and leaping along sheer walls. Laviani and Sharon dispatch the two remaining cannibals using a recovered shield and spear. The heroes reunite near a fallen tower that serves as a bridge across the chasm.

A terrifying guard awaits them on the bridge. The animated silver skeleton of the giant Golib. The monster slowly advances toward the travelers. Sharon blasts the skeleton’s knee with white fire. Laviani slows time with her ability and strikes the same spot with her shield. The giant loses his balance and falls into the thundering sea. The travelers enter the palace of the great wizards.

Secrets of the past

Inside the palace, Shautt separates the heroes. Laviani falls through the looking glass. The demon forces the woman to relive the most terrifying moments of her past. Jay sees a snowy winter, her dead son, and her first murdered victim. She battles the ghostly shadows of the murdered. She finds an ancient spear with hidden blades, shatters mirrors, and breaks free. Shautt torments Theo with illusions of endless pain. The acrobat sees terrifying images: he becomes hollow and kills many of the steel turtle’s soldiers. The demon makes her feel the rupture of her flesh and the loss of her sanity.

Sharon finds Niley in a vast hall. The child sleeps within a sphere of warm sunlight. The Pointer encounters an ancient shadow calling itself the Bound One. The Darkness demands the impossible: find the great wizard Tion, the only survivor of the Cataclysm. Sharon pledges to fulfill this demand for the child’s life. The shadow promises to return Niley upon completing the task. The Pointer learns the recipe for a white flower potion that slows the progression of Theo’s mark.

The three heroes leave the cursed Taloris. They gather the necessary flowers for the medicine. Theo drinks the potion and feels temporary relief. The Acrobat promises to help Sharon in her hopeless search. Laviani decides to join the party. Jay has nowhere to return to, and her combat experience is needed by her companions. The travelers prepare for a difficult journey across the continent. Their destination is the Frontier, a distant border of inhabited lands near the endless Desert. It was there that Tion was last seen 1,000 years ago.