The Old Gods are forgotten; the new ones haven’t been invented yet…
It’s a ruined, harsh, dying world overrun with filth and mutants. No one even remembers what it used to be. A series of wars that shook civilizations destroyed the planet and changed it forever.
Ilya was lucky. He grew up in a closed, walled-off place—an institution. But is it really good there? After all, escape into the terrible reality seems to be the only path to salvation.
Fate decides to give him a chance, and on a chessboard several pawns appear at once. Now they have a common game, a common task. Mag Godogoost—an outsider from another world— and Yasmina, a resident of the Ruins, are the beginning of the list of acquaintances that will open up as the journey continues.
And the boy has a lot ahead: other worlds, other eras, a radiation-dying Khantstvo and ancient Rus’, fairy-tale peoples and heroes of epics.