Gift of Malediction

One hundred and thirty-eight years ago, the Paradox Overrun nearly erased a nation — proof that an aberrant born from a Heaven's Vessel could devastate the world. When the catastrophe ended, forty vessels had become twelve. The world quietly agreed: that number would never rise again. Janus Zokial was an elementary teacher. He should have died in the aberrant attack that found him. Instead, he wakes as the Thirteenth. The international committee votes for his termination. The Empire has other plans. And when word of a Thirteenth Heaven's Vessel reaches the world — without a name attached — the fragile peace between nations begins to crack. A single Heaven's Vessel can save a country. Or destroy one.