This novel by G. L. Oldie, written at the intersection of alternative history, fantasy and utopia-dystopia, is first and foremost a parable. A parable about the Great Power and the Little People, about how the blind lead the blind, and the fact that there is nothing new - neither under the sun nor under the moon. But magicians and the Russian Empire at the beginning of the century? Gendarmes whose official “profile” is ethereal influences?! Sorcerers-convicts?! However, Oldie, as always, is not looking for easy ways - but deliberately complicating their task, so that they can then gradually emerge from the labyrinth of intricacies generated by their uncontrollable imagination.