The principalities are plagued by Mor’—a mysterious disease that kills or disfigures people. People blame the jesters who burn villages and towns. Prince’s messenger Krechet races through the forest domains to find a sorcerer for the sick prince’s heir, but finds only a talkative boy from abroad. An artist, a candle-maker, the son of a fisherman, and a girl running from the past end up at a crossroads—only the Lord Roadmaster knows how their fates will weave into a single tapestry. “The Paths of the Magi” is dark near-Slavic fantasy. The world is based on Rus’ of the 14th—15th centuries and supplemented by the author’s mythology. The tense atmosphere and the sense that the main character doesn’t know enough to survive. One of the main themes is a fantasy pandemic: the disease may not kill people, but it rewards them with bizarre physical features—horns, scales, hooves. A reimagining of classic folklore plots and beloved fairy tales, archetypal heroes in a new reading—none of them are who they seem. Grim secrets and cruel intrigues, innocent victims of someone else’s games, and wrong conclusions—what are the roads made of that lead the Magi?