Verdain breathes smoke instead of air. When a refinery explosion tears through the city's underbelly, disgraced journalist Elias Mercer finds himself chasing more than a headline. The fire burns blue, the dead whisper through the haze, and power trembles in the hands of those who built the city's bones. Caught between a faith that hears voices in the smoke and an industry that worships progress, Elias uncovers a secret that could remake Verdain-or drown it in ash. In a world where machines whisper and gods refuse to stay buried, truth may be the most dangerous invention of all.