“The meeting of two destined hearts is not something to brush off lightly. It should be rejoiced and revered, for it only occurs on rare occasions, such as the intervention of divine beings or by the guidance of destiny itself.”
Saint Nina to High Priestess Amani

FATED is the meeting between two young men, one late summer at the Temple of Life. Mercenary turned mogul Khimi Zeybek is the young heir to the powerful Cerulean Star Mercantile Company; he leads his caravan through a desert canyon to reach the far-off temple of the gods. There Khimi meets the temple’s Saint Nina, a representative of the gods above, and her assistant with leonine features, the acolyte Lumi.
The connection between Khimi and Lumi is immediate, but their bond is beset by obstacles from the start, both outside and within themselves. They will need the help of Khimi’s family advisor, the old paladin Rashid, and Khimi’s devilkin associate, the assassin Ennui, to overcome the trials ahead of them. Lumi has his own fate to unearth, intertwined with the gods and with their machinations for the two lovers. In this first volume of the FATED sequence, Lumi and Khimi explore the city-state of Rhaz and its political arena in the course of exploring what they mean to one another.