When magic dies, only the dead hold magic. Once the empire of Ritakhou was full of magic. But since the Schism the kingdom, now called Rimbaku, is a whisper of its former glory. The only remaining magic is the Relicant Touch, where people draw skills and knowledge from aishone, relic bones that are widely coveted and jealously guarded. Kagiri and Noniki leave their village with a small clutch of aishone and all the hope they can muster, but the world is a larger, more dangerous place than they ever dreamed. Soon they are forced into a dark bargain that may cost them not only their lives but their souls. The brothers' fates intertwine with an emperor, a warrior, a graverobber, and a killer in patterns none of them ever imagined, along the way to reshaping an empire, and quite possibly the world.