In this postapocalyptic fantasy, a sea of sand swallows everything but the past.In an endless sea of sand drifts the Mud Whale, a floating island city of clay and magic. In its chambers a small community clings to survival, cut off from its own history by the shadows of the past.The Mud Whale has been overrun with tárichos, a virulent parasitic growth that turns everyone it touches into a mindless husk controlled by the Nous Geráki. The only way to stop the spread of the tárichos is to destroy the Nous, but that won&;t be an easy task&;or one without sacrifice.