The Binding Tempest by Steven Rudy

SPFBO8 SPSFC

A fallen empire, a failed republic, and a frontier of alchemy, magic, and machines... They thought the war was over. That they had given enough, but when an oppressive empire falls, what comes from the ashes, is turmoil and treachery. Ellaria Moonstone, an alchemist, and a hero of the Great War, has spent the last forty years trying to rebuild. As an emissary for the Scholar’s Guild, her life’s work is establishing universities throughout the world. But as a former general that led the resistance in overthrowing the Sagean Empire, she has watched as all she fought for has slowly eroded away and with it, her faith in the republic. Now in her mid-fifties her singular focus has been to protect all knowledge for future generations. When the Peace King of the Free Cities goes missing Ellaria uncovers a plot to overthrow the tenuous republic. Convinced that the entity manipulating the fragile government is a Luminary with the powers to control energy, called a Sagean Lord. Ellaria sends for help from old allies and expatriates scattered across the chaotic frontier. Three former war heroes, long past their prime and haunted by their pasts, are all that stand against a dark entity threatening the future. But once reunited, the aging veterans realize trust between old friends is not what it once was. With the currency of souls is in the balance they find that their destinies are entwined with a band of young rogues willing to stand and fight with the heroes they grew up reading about. Together they must stop the return of a dark empire, but the key to protecting the future resides in the mysteries of the past, the lost tomb of the emperor’s and a relic from the time of the unknown ancients, called the Tempest Stone.