"Gyen Jebi isn't a fighter or a subversive. They just want to paint. One day they're jobless and desperate; the next, Jebi finds themself recruited by the Ministry of Armor to paint the mystical sigils that animate the occupying government's automaton soldiers. When Jebi discovers the depths of the Razanei government's horrifying crimes - and the awful source of the magical pigments they use - they find they can no longer stay out of politics. What they can do is steal Arazi, the ministry's mighty dragon automaton, and find a way to fight." -- Publisher.

For generations the empire has spread across the world, nigh-unstoppable in their advance. Its power depends on its automata, magically animated and programmed with sigils and patterns painted in mystical pigments. A symbol-painter -- themselves a colonial subject -- is frustrated in their work when their supply of Phoenix Extravagant dries up, and sets out to find the source. What they'll discover is darker than anything they could have imagined...