In the stars-spanning Censorate, all languages other than lingua rubra are forbidden. The Censorate’s ruling Peacock, Aurelia, wields the universal language to manipulate reality itself and to command the obedience of all who hear and understand her.

Valentina was sold as a child to Aurelia to serve as her sworn companion, the Swan, responsible for extracting useful knowledge from foreign texts before destroying their languages wholesale. Until she delivers a book of forbidden verse to the Peacock, which proves to be the key to enslaving the Basilisk, a traitor imprisoned for a thousand years, whose gaze is so powerful that he once destroyed the Censorate’s entire fleet…