A young advisor to the Emperor named Victarion flees his home planet, trying to escape the all-consuming swarm. But the ship with him and a couple of dozen other lucky people is shot down just before the hyperjump. Instead of a new, high-tech house, there is a backward little world on the outskirts of the universe. Instead of democracy, 3D printers, flying cars, information networks and neural interfaces - crossbows, swords, gas lamps, gears, “firearms”, civil strife between Great Lords. And also magic. Which, before the arrival of the fugitives, did not exist in this world...