Exile and Summons

Turyin Mulaghesh, a retired Saypuri general, lives in self-imposed exile, haunted by her past and the trauma of war. Her isolation is interrupted when Pitry Suturashni, an aide to Prime Minister Shara Komayd, arrives with a summons. Mulaghesh is blackmailed into service: her pension is threatened unless she undertakes a covert mission on the Continent. The request is personal, and a cryptic note from Shara—"Make it matter"—pierces Mulaghesh's defenses. Despite her bitterness and reluctance, she agrees, driven by a sense of duty, guilt, and the hope that her actions might still have meaning.

The Reluctant General Returns

Mulaghesh boards a ship bound for Voortyashtan, the most war-torn and haunted of the Continental polises. She is briefed by Shara via a recording: a miraculous ore, thinadeskite, has been discovered, and a Ministry operative, Sumitra Choudhry, vanished while investigating it. Mulaghesh's cover is a routine "touring shuffle" to earn her pension, but her true mission is to uncover the truth behind the ore and Choudhry's disappearance. The journey is fraught with anxiety and memories of past violence, especially as she learns her old commander, Biswal, now governs Voortyashtan.

Arrival in Voortyashtan

Mulaghesh arrives in Voortyashtan, a city defined by its violent history and the ruins of its Divine past. She is met by Signe Harkvaldsson, the brilliant CTO of the Southern Dreyling Company (SDC), and daughter of the infamous Sigrud. Signe is overseeing the reconstruction of the harbor, a project vital to the Continent's future. The city is a patchwork of old wounds and new ambitions, with tensions simmering between Saypuri occupiers, Continental tribes, and foreign contractors. Mulaghesh senses that beneath the surface, something ancient and dangerous is stirring.

The Disappeared and the Dead

Mulaghesh investigates Choudhry's last days, finding her quarters covered in frenzied, prophetic drawings and evidence of a mental breakdown. Choudhry's research into thinadeskite and Voortyashtani rituals led her to the edge of sanity. Meanwhile, a series of gruesome murders in the countryside—families butchered in the style of ancient Voortyashtani sentinels—suggests a ritualistic pattern. Mulaghesh suspects a connection between the ore, the murders, and the Divine, but the truth remains elusive, and the city's violence threatens to boil over.

The Mystery of Thinadeskite

In the fortress labs, Mulaghesh witnesses the power of thinadeskite: it conducts and amplifies electricity beyond scientific explanation. The ore's properties defy natural law, hinting at a Divine origin. Yet all official tests for Divinity return negative. Mulaghesh learns that the ore is being mined under heavy security, but there are signs of tampering—secret fires, missing material, and a tunnel leading from the mines to the countryside. The possibility that thinadeskite is a remnant of Voortya's miracles grows more likely, and the threat it poses becomes urgent.

Rituals and Remnants

Mulaghesh uncovers evidence that Choudhry attempted a forbidden Voortyashtani ritual, the Window to the White Shores, meant to contact the dead. The ingredients she purchased and the fires she set in the mines match the old rite. Signe explains the myth: Voortya promised her warriors an afterlife in the City of Blades, and one day, a final war—the Night of the Sea of Swords. Mulaghesh realizes someone is trying to bridge the gap between worlds, using thinadeskite and blood to awaken the dead. The city's past is clawing its way into the present.

The City's Bloody Echoes

The murders in the countryside are revealed to be test runs for a larger ritual. The killer uses thinadeskite swords, forged from the ore, to possess victims with the spirits of ancient sentinels, causing them to slaughter their own families. Mulaghesh's visions in the mines—memories not her own—suggest the ore is saturated with the souls and violence of the dead. The boundaries between life and death, past and present, are weakening. Mulaghesh is drawn deeper into the city's Divine legacy, and the threat of a mass resurrection looms.

Signe's Secrets and Swords

Mulaghesh discovers Signe has been hiding a yard full of Divine statues dredged from the bay, using them as leverage in political negotiations. The statues, like the ore, persist because the dead demand to be remembered. Signe's relationship with her father, Sigrud, and with Pandey, a Saypuri sergeant, is revealed to be complex and fraught with secrets. As sabotage and violence escalate, Mulaghesh realizes that the city's future depends on confronting the Divine past—and that Signe's own history is entwined with the city's fate.

The Madness of Choudhry

Mulaghesh deciphers a coded message left by Choudhry, revealing her desperate attempts to stop the coming apocalypse. Choudhry's mind unraveled as she crossed into the City of Blades, seeking a way to end the threat. She failed, dying of exhaustion and blood loss, her body found in the afterlife. Mulaghesh learns that the ritual requires the blood of a killer, thinadeskite, and a Divine cauldron. The pieces fall into place: someone is forging new swords, awakening the dead, and preparing to unleash the Night of the Sea of Swords.

The Smith in the Shadows

The true villain is revealed: Rada Smolisk, the city's Continental governor and a descendant of Saint Petrenko, the original smith. Rada, driven by grief and a longing for the lost afterlife, has been forging swords from thinadeskite, using her knowledge of ancient rites. She orchestrated the murders, the sabotage, and the Divine resurgence, believing that only by fulfilling the old promise can her people find peace. Mulaghesh confronts Rada in her secret forge, but is betrayed by Biswal, who kills Rada and frames Mulaghesh for murder.

The Night of the Sea of Swords

With the swords intact and Thinadeshi (the stand-in for Voortya) dying in the City of Blades, the contract is fulfilled: the dead rise, and the City of Blades emerges from the sea. Thousands of spectral ships, crewed by sentinels, sail for Voortyashtan. Biswal, obsessed with glory and war, refuses to destroy the swords, hoping to use the invasion to restore Saypur's martial pride. The city is thrown into chaos as the living and the dead prepare for battle, and Mulaghesh is imprisoned, powerless to stop the coming apocalypse.

The Sword's True Nature

Mulaghesh escapes with Sigrud's help and confronts Biswal, killing him to reclaim the sword of Voortya. She learns from Thinadeshi that the sword is not just a weapon, but a symbol—a contract, a promise, a vessel for the will of the dead. The dead persist because they are remembered, and the sword can rewrite the terms of their existence. Mulaghesh realizes that to stop the invasion, she must wield the sword and confront the dead not as a conqueror, but as a servant and a judge.

The Last Stand on the Cliffs

As the spectral fleet lands, Mulaghesh, wielding the sword, is transformed into the avatar of Voortya. She stands on the cliffs above the city, facing the army of the dead. The sword's power threatens to consume her, urging her to fulfill the promise of endless war. But Mulaghesh resists, using her will and her understanding of what it means to serve. She denounces the dead as unworthy soldiers, breaks the contract, and hurls the sword into the sea, shattering the fleet and ending the threat. The dead are finally released.

The Price of War

The aftermath is bitter. Signe is killed by Saypuri soldiers, Pandey dies in a tragic duel with Mulaghesh, and Sigrud is left bereft. Biswal's ambition and Rada's grief have left the city scarred. Mulaghesh is arrested and interrogated, but her actions are ultimately vindicated. The swords and statues crumble to dust, and the Divine is finally banished from Voortyashtan. The cost is immense: lives lost, friendships broken, and the city forever changed. Mulaghesh is left to reckon with her own guilt and the meaning of service.

The Queen of Grief

Mulaghesh is haunted by the deaths she has caused and the friends she has lost. She mourns Pandey, Signe, and all the children of war who trusted her. Sigrud, shattered by grief, disappears into exile. The city begins to rebuild, led by those who survived. Mulaghesh is offered a chance at redemption, but the scars of war run deep. She reflects on the nature of sacrifice, the weight of memory, and the impossibility of ever truly making amends. Yet she endures, determined to honor the dead by fighting for the living.

Defiant Love and Farewell

Signe's funeral becomes a moment of unity and defiance, as the city gathers to honor her memory. Mulaghesh, Sigrud, and the survivors find solace in each other, even as they prepare to part ways. The city's future is uncertain, but hope flickers in the darkness. Mulaghesh is released from prison, her actions recognized as heroic, if costly. She is offered a new role, a chance to shape the future of Saypur and the Continent. The lesson is clear: love, service, and sacrifice endure, even in the shadow of war.

A New Dawn for Saypur

Mulaghesh departs Voortyashtan, scarred but unbroken. She travels home among young soldiers, reflecting on the cost of peace and the meaning of service. The city she leaves behind is rebuilding, its people changed by the ordeal but determined to move forward. The Divine is gone, but the memory of war lingers. Mulaghesh is called to new leadership, tasked with guiding Saypur through an uncertain future. The story ends with a sense of possibility: the world is not everlasting, but hope, progress, and defiant love can still shape tomorrow.

Characters

Turyin Mulaghesh

Mulaghesh is a one-handed, battle-scarred Saypuri general forced out of retirement for a final mission. She is defined by her trauma from the Yellow March and the Battle of Bulikov, carrying deep guilt for the violence she has committed and the soldiers she has lost. Mulaghesh is fiercely competent, blunt, and driven by a sense of duty that borders on self-destruction. Her relationships—with Shara, Biswal, Sigrud, and Signe—are marked by mutual respect, regret, and the shared scars of war. Over the course of the story, she is forced to confront the meaning of service, the burden of memory, and the possibility of forgiveness. Her journey is one of reluctant heroism, culminating in her wielding the sword of Voortya and breaking the cycle of violence.

Signe Harkvaldsson

Signe is the chief technology officer of SDC, daughter of the legendary Sigrud. She is ambitious, confident, and dazzlingly intelligent, but beneath her poise lies trauma from her brutal childhood and a desperate need to prove herself. Signe's relationship with her father is strained by years of absence and violence, and her romance with Pandey is a rare source of joy. She is both a symbol of the Continent's future and a product of its violent past. Signe's willingness to risk everything for progress and love makes her a tragic figure; her death is a devastating loss that galvanizes those around her.

Sigrud je Harkvaldsson

Sigrud is a legendary Dreyling operative, now a chancellor and reluctant political figure. He is a man of immense strength, violence, and loyalty, haunted by the loss of his daughter and the atrocities he has committed. Sigrud's relationship with Signe is fraught with regret and longing; he is both proud of her and terrified by the world she inhabits. When Signe is killed, Sigrud's grief drives him to a berserk rage, resulting in further tragedy. Ultimately, he is forced into exile, a refugee from the very violence he once wielded so easily.

Lalith Biswal

Biswal is Mulaghesh's former mentor and the regional governor of Voortyashtan. He is a brilliant strategist, but his obsession with glory and the memory of the Yellow March blinds him to the cost of war. Biswal's inability to adapt to a changing world leads him to betray Mulaghesh, kill Rada, and attempt to use the Divine invasion for his own ends. His downfall is a cautionary tale about the dangers of nostalgia, pride, and the refusal to let go of the past.

Rada Smolisk

Rada is the Continental governor of Voortyashtan, a survivor of the Battle of Bulikov, and a descendant of Saint Petrenko. Outwardly timid and compassionate, she is secretly driven by grief and a longing for the lost afterlife. Rada forges thinadeskite swords, orchestrates the murders, and awakens the dead, believing she is fulfilling a sacred promise. Her actions are both monstrous and deeply human, a testament to the destructive power of unresolved trauma and the longing for meaning in a broken world.

Sumitra Choudhry

Choudhry is the Ministry agent whose disappearance sets the plot in motion. Brilliant, dedicated, and increasingly unstable, she is consumed by her investigation into thinadeskite and the Divine. Her attempts to stop the coming apocalypse lead her to the City of Blades, where she dies alone, a victim of her own sacrifice. Choudhry's fate is a warning about the dangers of obsession and the limits of individual heroism.

Shara Komayd

Shara is the architect of Saypur's reconstruction efforts and Mulaghesh's old friend. She is brilliant, manipulative, and burdened by the weight of leadership. Shara's decision to send Mulaghesh to Voortyashtan is both a political calculation and a personal act of faith. She believes in the possibility of change, but is not above using her friends as pawns. Her relationship with Mulaghesh is one of mutual respect, disappointment, and hope.

Pandey

Pandey is a Saypuri sergeant major, skilled swordsman, and Mulaghesh's former subordinate. His secret romance with Signe is a rare source of happiness in a brutal world. Pandey's grief over Signe's death drives him to a fatal duel with Mulaghesh, a tragic collision of love, loyalty, and the violence that defines their lives. His death is a microcosm of the story's central tragedy: the cost of war is always paid by the young.

Vallaicha Thinadeshi

Thinadeshi is the historical Saypuri engineer who becomes the stand-in for Voortya in the City of Blades. She is brilliant, driven, and haunted by the cost of her ambition. Forced to play the role of a god to prevent the apocalypse, she sacrifices her own life and legacy for the greater good. Thinadeshi's story is a meditation on the burden of leadership, the price of progress, and the impossibility of ever truly making amends.

The Watcher

The Watcher is the enigmatic, inhuman sentinel who guards the City of Blades. She is both a gatekeeper and a mirror, reflecting the desires and fears of those who seek entry. The Watcher's role is to judge who is worthy of the afterlife, and her interactions with Mulaghesh and Choudhry reveal the shifting boundaries between life and death, memory and oblivion.

Plot Devices

Divine Contracts and Miraculous Persistence

The central plot device is the Divine contract: Voortya's promise to her warriors of an afterlife and a final war. This contract is so binding that it persists even after her death, enforced by the collective will of millions of souls. Thinadeskite, the miraculous ore, is revealed to be the pulverized remnants of Voortyashtani swords, saturated with memory and violence. The persistence of the Divine—statues, swords, rituals—is not a matter of faith, but of memory and obligation. The story uses this device to explore the power of history, trauma, and the stories we tell ourselves, as well as the dangers of refusing to let go of the past.

Ritual, Sacrifice, and the Blurring of Worlds

The plot hinges on the performance of forbidden rituals—specifically, the Window to the White Shores, which requires thinadeskite, blood, and a Divine cauldron. These rituals blur the boundaries between life and death, past and present, allowing the dead to possess the living and the afterlife to invade the world. The narrative structure uses foreshadowing and parallelism: Choudhry's descent into madness mirrors Mulaghesh's own journey, and the murders in the countryside echo the violence of the past. The story's climax is a literal and metaphorical confrontation with history, as Mulaghesh must rewrite the contract and break the cycle of violence.

The Unreliable Nature of Memory and History

Throughout the novel, characters experience visions, flashbacks, and memories that are not their own, triggered by proximity to thinadeskite or Divine sites. These narrative devices create a sense of disorientation and ambiguity, forcing both characters and readers to question what is real, what is remembered, and what is constructed. The story's structure is non-linear, with revelations and twists emerging from the interplay of past and present, living and dead. The ultimate resolution depends on Mulaghesh's ability to reinterpret the past and assert a new meaning for service, sacrifice, and soldiering.

Analysis

City of Blades is a profound meditation on the legacy of violence, the burden of memory, and the possibility of redemption. Through the lens of a war-scarred general, the novel interrogates the myths of heroism, the cost of progress, and the seductive power of the past. The Divine is not merely supernatural, but a metaphor for the stories, traumas, and obligations that persist long after their originators are gone. The plot's central device—the contract between Voortya and her warriors—serves as an allegory for the ways societies are bound by history, and the dangers of refusing to let go. Mulaghesh's journey is one of reluctant heroism: she is forced to confront her own complicity in atrocity, to judge the dead, and to break the cycle of endless war. The novel's ultimate message is one of defiant hope: that even in a world built on blood and grief, it is possible to choose service over conquest, love over vengeance, and to make the dead matter by fighting for the living. City of Blades is both a thrilling fantasy and a searing exploration of the human cost of history, urging us to remember, to reckon, and to build a better future.

Last updated: February 1, 2026