<p><br></p><p><strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); color: rgba(15, 17, 17, 1)">Gormon Hughes is 19, thin as a broom., and has - not for the first time in his life - been swept into the path of trouble.</strong></p><p><br></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); color: rgba(15, 17, 17, 1)">Poor, recently heartbroken, and indebted to the sort of people who file their teeth into needle points and devour wriggling bloated spiders for fun, Hughes sets his sights on salvation.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); color: rgba(15, 17, 17, 1)">That salvation is the Scarlet Citadel, a wealthy organization of pageant fighters, monster hunters, and secret keepers. With the aid of strange oracles, rare good fortune, and a unique power that bubbles like champagne in the core of Hughes' being, he must join the Citadel and advance himself.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); color: rgba(15, 17, 17, 1)">But the ladder of progression is harsh and dark. The rungs are slippery.</span></p><p><br></p><p><strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); color: rgba(15, 17, 17, 1)">And falling means disaster...</strong></p>