The beginning of an epic fantasy series about sapphic pirates, a memory-stealing tyrant, and secrets hidden on the sea.

During the revolution, Commander Gavon slew the tyrannical god of memory and claimed his power. He then built the fair and democratic Golden Republic. But the Republic has terrible flaws, and anyone who fights for change might wake up one day with all memory of their identity stolen from them. Such a thing happened to pirate captain Cevette Zarcanzi. She plans to sail throughout the Seaward Isles, raiding the archives where Commander Gavon stores stolen memories trapped in physical form, and burning them to return the memories to their rightful owners, all in search of her lost past.

Evazina Gavon, the commander's foster daughter, is an embodied fragment of the shattered soul of the goddess of death. Women like her, known as echoes, are feared and hated in the Golden Republic, and the commander has only kept her safe because the sacrifice of echoes is what fuels his memory magic. When she joins Cevette's crew, Eva hopes returning the stolen memories to the citizens of the Golden Republic will lead them to speak out and peacefully remove her father from power. But, as Eva and Cevette sail to strange and remote islands, as their feelings for each other deepen, they discover that, to live freely, they must turn their ship around and fight.