Smoke rises day and night from the Crematory, a huge building made of yellow clay bricks stained with soot. Collectors make rounds through the city, piling up bodies to bring back here for burning. Greasy ashes rain down from the black clouds, painting swaths of the Ghost City white and gray. Raam’s chapter of the Veiled Alliance secretly convenes beneath the Crematory under the leadership of Nanda Shatri, a capable and determined female human of thirty-five years. Despite the fact that she is one of the Offspring, Shatri is a powerful preserver.