For years, Catherine Foundling struggled to scrape together enough money to enroll in the War College of Ater, the capital of the Dread Empire.

Only when she arrives there, it's not as a powerless orphan: she is the Squire, apprentice of the Black Knight, and is immediately dragged into the schemes of powerful lords.

Catherine must get to the bottom of a string of eldritch murders and the greater plot that lurks behind them before they get her killed—all while staying under an assumed name at the War College, lest the blades of assassins find her.

If she fails, it will start a civil war that would ravage the same home she left to save. If she wins, it might be at the cost of becoming the very kind of monster she thought she was fighting.

It will be a long year in the capital, living in the Tower's shadow, and how long Catherine can last might just be decided by the number of lines she's willing to cross to get what she wants.