Marin repairs shields the way priests repair faith—with words and silence and ingredients that shouldn't work. The material doesn't matter. What matters is what she feeds the ritual: captured echoes, prisoner confessions, the last breath before execution. Her shields never fail. But three months ago, she bound the soul of a man who swore he was innocent. Now every shield she makes sings his voice when it blocks a blow. And she's running out of time before the king finds out.