Before the storm

Every apocalypse needs its rats

Stories don't usually start with the end of the world. But on Ler, the world ends every seven days when a magical storm sweeps through, levelling everything outside the protective barriers. When you knock gods from the heavens, you have to expect consequences. The gods fell eighty years ago. And their fall left Ler scarred and, for the most part—outside the protective barriers—uninhabitable. Magic-contaminated soil, mutations, and a lack of surface water are nothing unusual. Outside the cities, even one poorly charged battery cell can mean the difference between life and death. But not everyone has been able to accept this, and so they look for ways to outwit the laws of nature and man—like rats, they find cracks in which they can survive. But what happens when some people begin to realise that there is a vast difference between surviving and living? And what if the gods themselves realise it too...