An urban fantasy grounded in the hopes and fears of today's world.Beşeri Kent--ex-elite soldier, expert spellcaster--just wants to heal people. But in his country of dual-souled shapeshifters, Beş is a threat, a defective being who can't remember his other-soul much less control its transformation. His best friend Taner Ayvin is the charmed one, an eagle-souled do-gooder who won't stop speaking out for the rights of the oppressed. When Kesin Hayali, government spy, warns them that they're being unjustly hunted for treason-by her-the three of them are thrust into a dangerous conspiracy. In their bustling city straddling a gleaming straight, a place of nightclubs and pastures, temple gardens and drug dens, they find government treachery, vigilante violence, and a conspiracy of military experiments. They also find allies: human rights workers, street activists, ordinary people standing together against intolerance and injustice. And they find each other, as friends and possibly lovers-if their personal demons allow it.Forced to flee the city for an isolated countryside of fairy chimneys and hidden canyons, they encounter unexpected humor and happiness in the villages of the confounding, prideful weylos, who will make Beş choose whether unspeakable joy is worth the loss of his soul. Are the weylos the source of what's driving the nation toward civil war-or will they be its salvation? With spellcasting and street protests, shapeshifting and some viral videos, they all will face an ambiguous future that might be even harder than the weylos determined mantra, "we will win, or we will die."