Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, masquerading as an ordinary schoolteacher in a quiet small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Mighty Sanze, the empire whose innovations have been civilizations bedrock for a thousand years, collapses as its greatest city is destroyed by a madmans vengeance. And worst of all, across the heartland of the worlds sole continent, a great red rift has been torn which spews ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries. But this is the Stillness, a land long familiar with struggle, and where orogenes - those who wield the power of the earth as a weapon - are feared far m