The Empire's Alchemist (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798295622519)

When magic is a commodity...

Magic provides untold power, allowing its users to control the elements, see the past, and manipulate energies. For the warlocks who hold this power, however, the price of their very survival depends on absolute, unflinching loyalty to the Empire and forced conscription into the Alchemists, an organization devoted to uncovering the secrets of magic and crushing the warlocks who grow too difficult to control.

...survival has a cost.

Tavla, a newly-appointed Alchemist, knows that she is in danger of being sent to the Underground, the gruesome pits where disloyal warlocks are sent to suffer a fate worse than death. So, when she is offered a mission to hunt down a rogue warlock in her old hometown, she jumps at the opportunity to prove herself. However, returning home awakens parts of her that she thought long buried and when she crosses paths with an idealistic inventor who dreams of a world where warlocks are free, she begins to wonder if she can live for more than the Empire's whims...