In this postapocalyptic fantasy, a sea of sand swallows everything but the past. In an endless sea of sand drifts the Mud Whale, a floating island city of clay and magic. In its chambers a small community clings to survival, cut off from its own history by the shadows of the past. The Mud Whale has been overrun with tárichos, a virulent parasitic growth that turns everyone it touches into mindless husks controlled by the Nous Geráki. The only way to stop the spread of the tárichos is to destroy the Nous, but that won't be an easy task--or one without sacrifice.