Book One: Of the Abyss
Citizens of Kavet generally give little thought to the afterlife–unsurprising, since the dominant religion of the country believes too much focus on the next world is directly responsible for strife in this one, and everyone knows idle curiosity about the other realms is the first step on a dangerous road to sorcery and madness.
The only people allowed by law to even discuss such topics are the Order of the Napthol, a group of scholars responsible for giving counsel and advice when questions regarding the next world arise. They are the ones who study the three realms: the mortal one in which human beings live and die, and the two that follow, the Abyss and the Numen. Anyone outside their order is strictly forbidden from even discussing the other realms.
Hansa Viridian is a respected captain in the elite guard unit tasked with protecting the population of Kavet from sorcery. When he arrests an abyssumancer, a sorcerer whose power comes from the infernal realm known as the Abyss, the man attempts to explain that the creatures of that realm have some kind of plan.
The prisoner doesn’t say much before his own magic kills him, and Hansa’s attempts to investigate the supposed plot only lead to more confusion. According to Sister of the Napthol Cadmia Paynes, the denizens of the abyss are creatures of violence and immediacy, incapable of planning. Everything she has ever been taught tells Cadmia she is right, but despite her assurances to Hansa and the others of his unit, she worries she has made a dreadful mistake.
When Hansa is implicated in a sorcerer’s crimes, the only way to avoid execution is to turn to the Abyss for help—specifically, to a half-Abyssi man named Umber who he knows he should hate, but whose physical attraction he cannot deny.
Hansa is only the first victim in a plot that eventually drags him, Cadmia, Umber, and a sorcerer named Xaz into the Abyss, where their only hope of escape is to complete an infernal task that might cost them their lives.
Book Two: Of the Divine
The second novel in Amelia Atwater-Rhodes’s dazzling Mancer trilogy, Of the Divine takes place seventy-one years before the events of Of the Abyss, in a world where sorcery is still practiced freely—but at what cost?
Henna’s runes tell her that the future of Kavet is balanced on the edge of the knife. One of the most powerful sorcerers in the Order of Napthol, she is well-respected for her second sight. But the fragments she sees this time—blood, darkness, destruction—leave her unsure how to set the country and her lover, Verte, prince of Kavet, on the correct course.
Meanwhile, the treaties between Kavet and the dragon-like race known as the Osei have become intolerable. The time has come for the royal house to wield their unique magic to challenge Osei dominion, with Prince Verte serving as the nexus for the powerful but dangerous spell, and Naples, an untested young sorcerer from the Order of Napthol, a volatile but critical support to its creation.
Amid these plans, Dahlia Indathrone’s arrival in the city shouldn’t matter. She has no magic and no royal lineage, and yet, Henna immediately knows the young woman is important. She just can’t see why. And no vision could prepare her for the role Dahlia will come to play.
In Of the Divine, the lives of Henna, Verte, Naples, and Dahlia become irrevocably linked, setting them, and all Kavet, on a perilous path. As they struggle to survive, they learn that they are but pawns in a larger game, one played by the forces of the Abyss and of the Numen—the infernal and the divine.
A game no mortal can ever hope to win.
Book Three: Of the Mortal Realm
The gripping conclusion to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes’s Mancer trilogy, Of the Mortal Realm finds the city of Kavet cast into the middle of the final showdown between the infernal Abyssi and the divine Numini. It is battle that could reshape the world…and a battle that not all will survive.
Hansa, Umber, and Cadmia have managed to fight their way out of the Abyss and return to Kavet, bringing the long-imprisoned prince Verte back with them. Verte is determined to return Kavet to its former magical strength and restore the reign of the Terre family. He has the ability; his stay in the Abyss has left him abundantly powerful. But it has also left him dangerously unstable. When Naples, once the strongest Abyssumancer in Kavet–and former ally of Verte–also returns from the Abyss, Hansa and the others realize it is not Verte they need to be concerned about. For the Abyssi and the Numini are engaged in their own grand war, one that is pouring across the veils of the realms. And if the magic-users cannot come together to stop them, the fabric of the mortal world will be destroyed, taking all of them with it.