The Crown of Lost Names
Seven hundred years earlier, an event called Starfall shattered part of the night sky. Crystalline fragments known as starshards fell across the kingdom of Alderwyn. Humans discovered that symbols carved with powdered starshard could manipulate reality. These became the Five Sigils. Ember controls heat, flame, and explosive force. Iron strengthens the body and can harden objects. Glass bends light, perception, and illusion. Gale manipulates movement, speed, and air. Grave manipulates memory, death, and the echoes left behind by human souls. Grave magic was outlawed centuries ago. Asher was born with its mark inside his bones. But all magic has a price: Every powerful use destroys one of the user's memories. The rich discovered a way around this. They learned how to make other people pay the price. And the royal family built an empire upon stolen memories. Central Hook: Asher works in the royal mortuary preparing the bodies of nobles for burial. He possesses a forbidden ability called Listening: when he touches the bones of someone recently dead, he can sometimes hear the person's final memory. One night, the murdered Crown Prince is delivered to his table. When Asher touches him, the dead prince whispers: “The king died three years ago. Whatever sits on the throne now is not my father.” By morning, soldiers are hunting Asher. And beneath the royal palace, something that has ruled the kingdom for centuries realizes that someone has finally heard the truth.