Decided to pick up another standalone book from M.L. Wang after enjoying The Sword of Kaigen.

This one followed Sciona as the first female to be granted entry to the High Magistry and her assistant Thomil, a Kwen from outside the barrier of Tiran.

Sciona discovers that the source of all their magic is the same Blight which decimates people in the outside world and then works to try and reform the system that she is a product of.

Unfortunately, I found the big twist / plot point a little bit too predictable. I had sussed the link about 10% of the way through the book but we didn’t actually get to the reveal until about half way which meant that it dragged a little bit. Having said that, I kept reading because I wanted to see how everything would shake out and the ending of the book really felt quite high stakes and fast paced so I enjoyed it.