Keys of Candor takes place in the island world of Candor, a dystopian society made up of five realms. Deep political and religious tensions create conflict among the realms as an ancient evil begins to emerge from the ashes of Candor’s past. Three young narrators navigate an unstable world, and their lives will converge to determine an uncertain future for Candor and all its inhabitants, all by discovering the truth behind the mystery of the Keys of Candor.
The Keys of Candor are objects of immense power from Candor’s distant past, once used and wielded by the extinct people who came before; the Predecessors. The Keys have been divided across the realms under the watch of trusted guardians, while their existence and true purpose remains shrouded and protected at all costs by the monks of the Alephian order. To bear all the Keys grants the holder unlimited power, as well as the ability to unlock ancient, blood-thirsty gods, known as Serubs, out from their mirror prisons. Five Keepers, whose charge has been to secretly hold these objects and prevent their use, have successfully kept the Keys divided and hidden and have protected Candor for generations. That is, until now. The Keepers are dying, and the Keys are disappearing. These Red Deaths and their true significance are not understood by most on Candor, but for those who know the truth...the future looks grim.
Kull Shepherd waits for his father, Grift, to come home in the small town of Cotswold, within the realm of Lotte. Young, ambitious, and longing for action, he resents being left behind to care for his ailing mother. When his father’s train arrives, it is under attack by a band of Grogan fighters who ravage Cotswold. The raiders capture Grift, leaving what’s left to burn to the ground, triggering a state of war within Candor after forty years of peace.
Willyn Kara is the leader of the Grogan fighters and sister to Hagan, ruler of the Groganlands. Hagan lies in a coma, the result of a crippling assassination attempt, and Willyn seeks revenge on who she believes to be the perpetrator – Grift Shepherd. She captures him and returns to the fortress city of Rhuddenhall determined to put her family and kingdom back together. She is dealt a double blow when Grift escapes and her political enemy Hosp manipulates the Grogan Council into giving him ruling power due to her brother’s illness. Furious, fierce, and with nothing left to lose, Willyn sets off to recapture Grift and save her family.
As tensions rise within Candor’s realms, Seam Panderean prepares for his father’s burial and his own inauguration as the new High King of Lotte. Outwardly mourning his father’s assassination, Seam claims allegiance to the god Aleph and pledges to lead his people. Inwardly, he plots to gain control of the five Keys of Candor, which will give him control of the Serubs and their divine powers.
Kull’s Story:
Kull escapes the ruins of Cotswold with his friend Adley, a nurse for the Lottian army. Adley successfully smuggles Kull to Vale, the capital of Lotte. In Vale, Kull is able to meet a friend of his father’s – Wael, the Mastermonk, head of the Alephian order. They set out for the Groganlands together where Wael hopes to broker peace between the realms and Kull intends to search for his captured father. Wael becomes mentor and protector of the sheltered Kull as the journey quickly becomes perilous. Upon reaching the Groganlands capital, they find the city in a state of civil war. Rebels calling themselves the “Reds” are fighting against Hosp’s recent power grab. They claim to be loyal to Willyn Kara, and are hostile to any intrusion. After a brief but intense encounter with the Red rebels, Wael successfully brokers passage to the enemy’s side. There, Kull and Wael meet Hosp who refuses the Mastermonk’s attempts at peace. They learn that both Grift and Willyn have traveled to Elum, so Wael and Kull leave the Groganlands. They make their way to Elum, concealing themselves in a train of Baggers, Candor’s nomadic day laborers.
When the train is stopped by Seam’s army, Kull finds that Wael has bigger secrets than he realized. Wael slips Kull a Key, warning him to guard it with his life before being beaten and taken away by Seam’s forces. Kull and the Baggers are forced into a desert labor camp where they are forced to dig in the beating sun. The work stops when they unearth an ancient mirror that is confiscated by the army. Chaos erupts when Kull instigates a Bagger rebellion. As the Baggers clash with the army, the Key he hides awakens the Serub trapped in the mirror. Kull is quickly arrested, locked in chains, and taken to the pinnacle fortress icalled the Spire in Zenith, Seam’s new capital city. As Kull awaits his fate, the army brings in Wael, also in chains. Before seeing the High King, Kull and Wael are inspected by a nurse - his friend Adley. As she tends his wounds, she slips him a lockpick.
Willyn’s Story:
Willyn travels to the coastal realm of Elum, where her intelligence has traced Grift. The king of Elum provides her with a guide named Luken to help navigate the labyrinthian island chain. Luken is overconfident, mysterious, and unconvinced of Grift’s guilt, but the pair begin to track the missing man. As they encounter bands of undead morels and unforgiving terrain, Willyn’s suspicion of Luken begins to fade and Willyn finds herself intrigued by his mysterious persona.
They find signs of Grift and pursue him, but their boat is intercepted by Elum’s navy. They learn that the king of Elum has been assassinated and Elum authorities are blaming Willyn. They capture her and throw her into their prison. Confused and angry, Willyn unsuccessfully tries to escape her room. Luken soon breaks into the facility to help her escape, where he informs her of Hagan’s death. Burying her grief, Willyn and Luken make for their small ship, dodging sniper fire. Willyn rushes into the ship's cabin only to find Grift Shepherd inside.
Willyn moves to attack Grift before realizing she has been injured from sniper fire. She passes out as Grift and Luken work to evade Elum’s forces. When she wakes up, Luken and Grift reveal the truth. Hagan, like Grift, was a Keeper of the Grogan Key. Hosp and Seam’s shadowy alliance brought about three Red Deaths - King Camden, Sar Hagan, and Filip, the King of Elum. In Willyn’s absence, a strong Red resistance has emerged to fight Hosp’s rise to power. Disillusioned and full of grief, Willyn vows to take revenge against Hosp. The three decide they can find safety in Preost, the realm ruled by the Alephian monks. They soon find themselves back under siege by Seam’s forces. Willyn and Grift are captured and taken to the Spire, while Luken is lost at sea in the battle.
Seam’s Story:
Seam finds himself the new High King after his father was assassinated under mysterious circumstances. Quickly claiming the throne, Seam sets out to claim the Keys and the mirrors that hold the Serubs. After dodging his own assassination attempt, it is revealed that Seam is working with Hosp of the Groganlands to set the Serubs free from their mirrors.
Seam travels to an ancient, abandoned temple outside the capital with Bronson, his most trusted guard. He reunites with a mysterious woman named Vashti who helps him to retrieve the first mirror that bears one of the ancient gods. Beautiful and alluring, Vashti leads Seam deeper into the temple where they find a dusty, ornate mirror. Realizing that the mirror requires a blood sacrifice, Seam turns Vashti’s seduction against her, sacrificing her to feed the Serub inside the mirror. Vashti’s death restores the form and beauty of Abtren, the first Serub, still locked in glass. Seam forces Bronson to help transport the mirror back to the palace, where Bronson sees the terrifying truth of what is transpiring.
Seam becomes even more obsessed with the power and seeks to find the remaining mirrors. He moves quickly, issuing a truce with his shadow conspirator, Hosp of the Groganlands. The two quickly end the war between Lotte and the Groganlands to form an outspoken alliance. Leveraging Hosp’s obsession and worship of the Serub, Seam is able to bargain for the possession of Hagan’s Key and the Key of the recently murdered despot, Filip Darian, King of Elum. Eavesdropping on Hosp, Seam learns that his ally seeks to kill him, and is only using him to help restore the Serubs back to power. Despite this, Seam works hard to ensure the citizens of Candor welcome this newfound peace.
He rebuilds the ancient city of Zenith in the abandoned realm of Riht and concentrates the alliance’s power there, as the new capital of both Lotte and the Groganlands. He pins the recent assassinations of his father, Hagan, and Filip Darian of Elum on an alliance made up of Willyn, Grift Shepherd, and Wael the Mastermonk. He broadcasts their guilt across Candor and makes them enemies of the new alliance. Seam knows that Grift and Wael possess the final two Keys and that Willyn must be murdered to give Hosp complete control over the Groganlands.
The Spire
The fates of all the characters converge in the Spire. Wael, Grift, Willyn, and Kull have all been imprisoned. With all the Keys in one place, Seam plans to execute his captives, sacrificing them to Abtren and to Arakiel, the Serub whose mirror was found in the labor camp pit.
While Seam conducts his “trial,” Kull uses Adley’s lockpick to free himself and passes it to his father. They attack and disarm Seam as the soldiers begin to fire their weapons. Fearing damage to the mirrors, Seam orders them to stop. At the same time, Willyn escapes her bonds and frees Wael.
Seam’s strength and resolve are bolstered supernaturally by the Keys, and he pulls a dagger on Kull, who struggles to hold the blade back. A shot rings out as Seam falls to the ground in a crumpled heap. Grift stands over his enemy with the gun he has stolen from one of the guards. As more guards rush the room, Kull is shocked to see Seam slowly stand up and laugh off the bullet wound. Weighing the odds, Kull makes a split-second decision and grabs the High King’s discarded dagger. In a flash he brings the blade to Seam’s throat in a perilous standoff. Kull commands all the soldiers to let Grift, Willyn, and Wael go. As the guards press in, Kull stabs Seam in the shoulder. Seam commands them to do what Kull says and Grift, Willyn, and Wael escape the Spire in a transport arranged by Adley. Kull watches their transport safely escape, satisfied that his sacrifice will enable Grift and Wael to fight Seam’s forces another day.
This is intended to be the first part of a full series, followed by Sea of Souls.
