In a cruel desert, slaves toil in chains. Their masters, angelic seraphim with haloes and swan wings, drive them mercilessly with whips of fire. For centuries, the slaves have languished here, building pyramids, temples, and glorious cities for their overlords. But long ago, these wretched, beaten people were not slaves. Long ago, they could become dragons. They once lived in a land called Requiem, many miles away. Without their chains and collars, they could summon ancient magic, grow wings, and breathe dragonfire. Today Requiem lies in ruin, perhaps only a myth. Today the children of Requiem labor as humans, rather than fly as dragons. But there are some who believe that Requiem can rise again. A slave girl, a miner of bitumen. A haunted young man, a brickmaker. A haggard priest, his wife slain. The mysterious princess, holder of a secret power. Together they will rise up. They will cast off their chains. They will tell their seraphim masters: "Requiem is free. We will fly as dragons again."
The people of Requiem. For centuries, they've been languishing as slaves, chained and collared in a distant desert, their homeland in ruins. For centuries, they could not summon their ancient magic, doomed to remain in human forms while once they could fly as dragons. For centuries, they suffered under the whips of the seraphim, angelic overlords with swan wings, gentle haloes, and eternal cruelty. Now, for the first time, a savior rises. Meliora once thought herself a princess of seraphim. She lived in a palace, and she too owned slaves from Requiem. Yet when Meliora learns the truth--that her father was a slave, that she too could become a dragon--she leaves her life of wealth and power. She joins the enslaved. She tells her brother, king of the seraphim: "The children of Requiem will fly again." With a handful of brave souls, Meliora seeks to escape the land of slaves, to find the mythical key that can unlock their cursed collars… that can let Requiem's people fly as dragons again.
For centuries, Requiem's people have languished in chains, slaves to the seraphim, unable to become dragons like in the days of old. Now they fly again. They follow Meliora the Merciful, a dragon of silver and light, once a princess of seraphim and now a savior of slaves. They rise up against the seraphim, their cruel masters, demi-gods in chariots of fire. A nation of dragons, half a million strong, they seek to flee the desert of their enslavement, to fly north, to cross the sea . . . to find the mythical land of Requiem. Yet as Meliora leads her slaves out from captivity, the cruel King Ishtafel, mightiest of the seraphim, pursues with an army of light. His goal is no longer to enslave the children of Requiem. He seeks but one thing--to slay them all. With shimmering scales, with raining blood, with shrieking dragonfire . . . Requiem's exodus begins.