Ellie was born in a Hive—a cold salad of shards of worlds, inhabited by hordes of infected reanimated dead things and other bloodthirsty creatures. But even in this chaos there is order. In one of the most powerful states of the Hive—the Azov Union—a Flowerbed has been created; its students, orchid girls, exist to please important gentlemen. Ellie’s fate is to become the spouse of Zen, the monstrous quas, the leader of the Western Confederation. But should she submit to fate if she was born for freedom and happiness?..