As an aspiring scientist, Katarine Maris moves to Glenne to begin her career in a top science undergraduate program--and to look for her best friend who's been missing for seven years. The last anyone saw, he had run into the heart of the city, where industrial machines and airborne toxins are the least of the residents' worries there. Enrik has always been sick, always the odd one out, always fighting to take his next breath. He's all but given up hope, until his brother leads Katarine right back into their lives. Have they arrived in time, or worse: does Enrik want to be saved at all? Fairfax, an alchemist living in Glenne, offers Katarine a chance at working with him as his apprentice. As Chairman of Industry and Mechanization in Glenne, his unique access to every part of the inner district gives her unrestricted access to look for Enrik. But how could she continue to work with a mentor who's fallen in love with her? Especially when she doesn't realize that's what's happening. Join the adventure and set your rail spikes in the first installment of a new Steampunk series set on a parallel Earth, Lords of the Civilized Underworld.