In this postapocalyptic fantasy, a sea of sand swallows everything but the past. In an endless sea of sand drifts the Mud Whale, a floating island city of clay and magic. In its chambers a small community clings to survival, cut off from its own history by the shadows of the past. Chakuro and the people of the Mud Whale believe they have found a new home, safe from the ravaging effects of thymia and the threat of the empire. But when calamity follows...