In a distant corner of the Cosmere, two lives governed by rigid professional ritual find themselves inextricably linked by an unexplained supernatural phenomenon. Yumi, a Yoki-hijo from a land of searing heat and floating plants, spends her days in a state of high-pressure sanctity, stacking stones to commune with spirits that provide for her people. Thousands of miles away—or perhaps in another reality entirely—a young man known as Painter lives in a city of perpetual darkness illuminated by neon "hion" lines. His vocation is a grim necessity: he paints the nightmares that emerge from the surrounding shroud of blackness, turning them into harmless art before they can consume the citizens of Kilahito.

When a plea for help from a spirit goes awry, Yumi and Painter are thrust into one anoth...

In a distant corner of the Cosmere, two lives governed by rigid professional ritual find themselves inextricably linked by an unexplained supernatural phenomenon. Yumi, a Yoki-hijo from a land of searing heat and floating plants, spends her days in a state of high-pressure sanctity, stacking stones to commune with spirits that provide for her people. Thousands of miles away—or perhaps in another reality entirely—a young man known as Painter lives in a city of perpetual darkness illuminated by neon "hion" lines. His vocation is a grim necessity: he paints the nightmares that emerge from the surrounding shroud of blackness, turning them into harmless art before they can consume the citizens of Kilahito.

When a plea for help from a spirit goes awry, Yumi and Painter are thrust into one anoth...