Twelve-year-old Mollinaire Blackwater returns home to the Empire, from the edge of her world - from the mysterious land of the “barbarians” - the Rooskies, whom the Empire is slowly but surely pushing out to the north. Molly is endowed with the most dangerous gift of magic, prohibited in the Empire, and carriers This gift is being persecuted by the Special Department. Will Molly be able to outmaneuver them? After all, this is the only way she can save herself, her family and true friends. The battlefield becomes her native North York - a city where luxury and poverty, military power and espionage intrigues, huge steam engines and a terrible fiery secret living in the dungeons coexist. what to do when a new danger looms over Molly’s loved ones, and those above even the Special Department come against the girl herself? Will Molly now be able to survive in her own world - in a world where steel, steam... and magic rule!