Summary

Once, France had four houses in the Order of Babel that swore to protect the power of forging. But two houses fell, and the others swore to secrecy.

The Matriarch of house Kore prepares to leave for dinner with house Nyx. She looks at her Babel Ring and remembers house-marking her first artifact. As she goes to her carriage, she is attacked and her ring is stolen.

A text from a book titled Origins of Empire explains that forging is a power given by the Babel gragements scattered across the world. Those capable of forging can create things to rival God himself. However, the writer believes overuse will end the world.

One week before the prologue, Séverin waits at an auction run by Houses Nyx and Kore. He remembers House Vanth, declared dead ten years prior, and S...