The Blueprint of Shadows: The Origin of the Variable (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798252322629)

Before the sky fell, the Empire was already hollow.

The High Citadel looms over a world of industrial smog, a gleaming paradise built on the backs of those who are told their very breath is a debt to be repaid. In the depths of the Slags, survival is the only currency that matters, and hope is as rare as clean air.

Ren is the Empire's perfect weapon. A boy whose life is regulated by silver circuits and a mechanical rhythm, he has been forged to follow orders without question. But beneath the metal and the logic, he is still a boy trying to buy one more day of life for the only person he loves.

Suyin is a scavenger in the toxic mud. She has spent her life choking on violet exhaust, digging through the wreckage of a society that has forgotten her name. She never went looking for a revolution; she was just looking for a way to stop the burning in her lungs.

They were never meant to meet. Their lives were dictated by separate corners of the dark, until a forbidden secret is unearthed in the Slags. When the logic of the Empire fails, a collision is inevitable.

Discover the origin of the Variable. Witness the first match struck in the dark and the moment a heart decided to beat to its own rhythm.