Wings of the Bat. Part I. The Sleep of Reason

The higher world is uneasy. The creatures living in it are uneasy too. Everyone pursues their own interests, makes their own rules, indulges their personal ambitions. Great powers are subject to some—but how do you manage them? How do you put them to good use? And what, exactly, is “good”? Yours is different for each. And it is dangerous—very dangerous.

So now, in the Temple Rocks, the Holy Synod has gathered to judge a criminal. A prisoner accused of horrifying things. But something is wrong with this man—something is clearly not in order. He doesn’t behave the way a condemned person awaiting torture and certain death is supposed to. It’s as if he’s not a captive at all, but the master of the situation. Who is this Azar? Without titles, without nicknames, without a second name from his father—just Azar. And for some he is a teacher; for others, a killer; for still others, a violator of every conceivable and inconceivable rule, law, and decree.