Humanity survived the apocalypse by surrendering to the Symmetry Council. Emotion is a crime, and the suppression of the human spirit is absolute. But just beneath the surface, an ancient artificial intelligence has woken up.

Inside the vast eastern concourse, citizens of the Symmetry Code moved in orderly streams. Each one carried a small compliance monitor clipped to their collar, documenting the physical deviations of their neighbors with the clinical zeal of saviors.
It happened before he could think it. His body moved on knowledge he did not know he carried, closing the distance in one stride and catching the falling beam a handspan from the boy's face.
I hold to a single idea I carry without any memory of having lived it. Light. A low tone comes up under it and holds, one note in the dark.
How a civilization built on the premise that the universe is a closed equation became the most powerful empire in human history, and why that same premise will destroy it.
A standalone prequel set in the iron fields of the Clayborn Territories. One scavenger. One drone. One impossible bet against the arithmetic of an empire.
The machine has awoken. The Inquisition is hunting. The complete three-volume story is ready.
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