Beachem Books
The Writings of John Beachem
Magic is no more. The powers of the arcane, once wielded by every woman, man, and child have vanished in a storm of flames and destruction that reduced the world to cinders. The passing of the mystical has left a world filled with fearful, desperate people, scratching out an existence amongst the ruins of their former glory. In the void of leadership and power have stepped the clans: bands of survivors united in common purpose, who see all outsiders as nothing more than threats to their survival.
Miryam Galik and her people are traders. Traveling the world and bartering goods and labor for the necessities of life, they owe allegiance to no clan and see themselves as being apart from their conflicts. Yet, when an act of kindness in defense of a hapless, stuttering stranger places her people at the center of an ongoing feud between two rival clans, her life becomes something very different, and avoiding the struggles of others may no longer be possible.
Drawn to the looming engagement are a woman struggling to balance her own beliefs with devotion to her family; and one whose world has been shattered by loss. One woman's act of compassion, one's feelings of loyalty, and one's need for revenge could now set the world down a path that might be fated to end in only one of two ways: with the return of magic and the ascendance of humanity to its former glory; or with the re-emergence of a long-dreaded entity that will finish what it started more than a hundred years ago.