When Rin aced the Kejuthe Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies - a war orphan from Rooster Province - Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence - she got into Sinegardthe most elite military school in Nikanwas very surprising.Surprises arent always good...Being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the south is not an easy thing at Sinegard. Targeted by rival classmates for her colour, poverty, and gender, Rin discovers she possesses a lethal, unearthly poweran aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism.Exploring the depths of her gift with the help of a seemingly insane teacher and psychoactive substances, Rin learns that gods long thought dead are very much aliveand mastering control over those powers could mean more than just surviving school.The militarily advanced Federation occupied Nikan, which for decades after the First Poppy War, had barely lost the continent in the Second. Few are aware that a Third Poppy War is just a spark away . . .Rins shamanic powers may be the only way to save her people. As she finds out more about the god that has chosen her, the vengeful Phoenix, she fears that winning the war may cost her humanity . . . and that it may be too late.