Kazdel is the homeland of the Sarkaz. For 200 years now, this city has run on the souls of ancestors burning within a furnace — the Revenants. Their heat travels through pipes to the citizens all across the city.

But one night, the Lich hold a grand ritual to summon the Revenants from the furnace at last and set them free — to finally let the ancestors, sealed and burning for ten thousand years, rest.

But the ritual goes awry, and shards like sparks pour across the night sky. A few of them carried Revenants inside. And the one who ends up chasing after those shards is a single Diyel — said to be the kindest in all of Kazdel.

The Furnace Blew Up, and Nobody Ran

Nymph is a Diyel who recently became a 'district warden'. She uses Arts to read emotions and cast suggestions, but what she's truly best at is looking after people. She even promised a friend that she'd keep her district's residents safe while the ritual was underway.

So Nymph tries to evacuate the people in the plaza past the cordon. But the mercenary sharpening his blade, the vendor collecting stall fees, the wandering singer — nobody listens to her.

Far off, the ritual is in full swing at the Great Furnace. Then a Military Commission airship's cannon, under the influence of a Revenant shard, charges of its own accord — and fires straight at the furnace.

A burning rain poured down on Kazdel. A glittering shard fell right onto Nymph's head, too. A shadow seeped out of it — an old Revenant grandfather who had burned for 200 years, no, ten thousand years.

When Nymph shows him her neighborhood, the old man grumbles that it's a sorry state, that nothing has progressed at all… and then, after a long silence, he leaves behind just one quiet word.

Rest……

— Revenant

Around then, Nymph's Lich friend Ermengarde — 'Ermie' — gets in touch. Fewer than ten Revenant shards scattered by the blast fell across the city, and since they're no better than ticking time bombs, she asks Nymph to recover every last one.

Following the Smell of Roasting Potatoes, She Found a Gang War

Carrying a detector bag Ermie modified for her, Nymph heads into the slums to search for shards. There she meets Poul, a laid-back young man out shopping for sweet potatoes.

A huge chunk of metal with a shard embedded in it had crashed into the slums, and gangs like Broken Horn were on the verge of drawing knives over turning it into food.

But as it turned out, Poul was the 'esteemed Advisor' whom all the slum's people looked up to. He mediates the meeting and defuses the fight — outwardly composed, though drenched in cold sweat within.

Having spirited the shard away safely, Nymph decides that, since it's come to this, she'll search for the remaining shards together with Poul.

The Monster Draped in Bedsheets Turned Out to Be a Runaway Golem

A rumor spreads through the neighborhood that a monster draped in a bedsheet — a 'vengeful spirit' — is on the prowl. The timid Beansprout, and little Cherry who is learning her letters from Nymph, both quake with fear.

But that 'monster' was Mudrock's giant stone statue. Possessed by a Revenant shard, it had run amok. Strangely, it attacked only Sarkaz and never touched outsiders.

Mudrock is the one who led her Infected comrades from outside the city back into Kazdel. As she pulls out the shard, Mudrock tells of why she went out of her way to bring her comrades of other races inside the walls.

You can steer clear of what's bad, but what's good is good in the end, no matter what anyone says.

— Mudrock

When Nymph says Kazdel has grown far too weak, Mudrock answers that the Kazdel of today has never been so weak — telling her, along with it, the story of Rhodes Island and of Amiya.

Why She Guarded a Brooch That Wouldn't Even Sell as If It Were Her Life

The next shard was in the hands of an elegant market vendor. Crowny — a Sarkaz designer who makes clothes and souvenirs from scrap — had a Revenant dwelling in her purple gemstone brooch.

Unable to get the brooch, Nymph chases after Crowny, takes to the sky with her clumsy Arts, and promptly plummets. That's when the Sankta courier Mostima catches her.

Mostima belongs to Penguin Logistics. She'd come all the way outside Kazdel to deliver expensive silk to Crowny. And another Sankta, Fiammetta, lay hidden, keeping watch over Mostima.

Crowny says she was once driven out of Kazdel and wandered Ursus. There, she came upon an old sketchbook belonging to some Sarkaz designer — all that remained was a half-erased phrase, 'For AM,' and the outline of a single dress.

To understand that feeling, she learned how to make clothes, and crafted tourist souvenirs that wouldn't sell. Saying she no longer needs it, Crowny hands the brooch over to Nymph.

Someday, Kazdel too will welcome tourists from across Terra… I believe that.

— Crowny

She Dropped By for a Cup of Tea and Got Trapped in Someone Else's Memory

The home of her neighbor Kalaisha is filled with the scent of herbal tea. She's a gentle soul who bakes strawberry cookies — but she earnestly warns Nymph not to touch anything in the house carelessly.

Of all places, where the shard detector reacted sat a wreath woven from dry branches. Drawn by the shard's power, Nymph's hand picks up the wreath of its own accord — and she is pulled into Kalaisha's memories.

Within the memory, Nymph becomes a Nachzehrer who has left the battlefield. She meets a deserter dying while longing for snow, a witch immersing herself in an ice spring, and even the legendary bell-toller Netzsalem.

Pain is the shadow of power, and life is the burning sun.

— Kalaisha

Kalaisha pulls Nymph out of the dream. That wreath was an as-yet-unfinished device she'd made to heal Nachzehrer tormented by the trauma of the battlefield. In exchange, the shard's rampage sent Nymph's Arts wild, and Kalaisha's sturdy house collapsed flat.

Around then, a strange wanderer was roaming the city — one made entirely of tin, carrying the largest Revenant shard of all.

The Biggest Shard Walked Around Smoking a Cigarette

The wanderer Nymph and Poul catch calls himself Tin Man. A tin-bodied stranger from Columbia — and astonishingly, he could converse with the Revenants inside the furnace.

Tin Man says he wants to go inside the Great Furnace to meet an 'old friend.' Though reluctant, Ermie takes Nymph's group — who gathered up all the shards — to the deepest part of the furnace.

When They Told the Ancestors About Kazdel's Future

At the furnace core, Ermie tries to complete the requiem rite her teacher never finished. But far from answering, the Revenants move to tear Ermie to shreds. Tin Man barely holds them off.

So they change tack. Everyone writes down the future of Kazdel they each envision on paper, and decides to send it off by burning it in the furnace fire — telling their story to the ancestors.

Nymph and Mudrock envisioned a Kazdel with no monarchy and no discrimination; Crowny wondered about the legendary Kazdel said to have sunk beneath the earth; Poul earnestly forecast the future… each a different story.

At last the ancestors manifest, shaking the furnace. They rage at these presumptuous tales of the future, yet grow intrigued as well. To an ancestor who asks what they'll do if they take a wrong road, Nymph answers.

Even if it's a rough, narrow road of mud, isn't that better than standing at a dead end on the edge of a cliff……?

— Nymph

The ancestors reach their verdict. If they truly believe such a Kazdel is better, then let them live it out and prove it — bearing both success and failure on their own.

We shall watch and see whether you are worthy… of forging a new road for the Sarkaz.

— Revenant

So, Where Are You Trying to Send Us?

Nymph asks urgently — where are they going? The ancestors' answer was brief.

Into the story you told us.

— Revenant

The story stops here — at the threshold of a new road, right on the cusp of the next chapter.

On a sleepless night, there was someone who wanted to try something against the pitch-black sky — like, say, catching the fireworks that burst so loudly. Nymph had believed in the Revenants since childhood, truly met an ancestor that night, and now, before the watching eyes of that ancestor, she walks into the story they told.