This is a collation of the first two books in the Fires of an Empire Saga. It tells the chronological story of "Fire from Ashes," and "Waves of a Tempest" as the events of the parallel tales unfold. In an empire where dissent means death, ancient faiths are crushed and young boys are torn from their families to feed a hungry military, two paths, forged in desperation, are about to collide. Ciran bears the scars of a soldier's life, but his greatest wounds are the ones that drove him to desert. Now he runs, pursued by his past and the empire's blade, seeking a kind of freedom that may not exist. Beyond the mountains, he discovers a truth that threatens to upend everything he thought he knew. Roshin, an orphaned healer versed in forbidden lore, witnesses the empire's cruelty daily in the broken bodies she tends. When she and her companions fall prey to the very darkness she fights against, her faith in an ancient prophecy is all that keeps her spirit alive. In a land where hope itself is treason, their paths converge in a story of faith, choice, and the price of freedom.
