Brenna Fell-Hand was the most respected vault-architect in Thorn-Hold — the woman who designed the legendary Gilded Vault, an impenetrable repository carved from solid bedrock and protected by acoustic locks, rune seals, and mechanical puzzles that only she fully understood.

Then she was framed for embezzlement. The evidence was manufactured. The trial was a formality. Five years in exile, her reputation destroyed, her life's work bearing another architect's name.

Now a shadowy information broker is offering her the one thing she can't refuse: a chance to break into the Gilded Vault and retrieve the documents that would prove her innocence. She has 72 hours before the vault's contents are relocated.

Her crew: three disgraced specialists, each with their own grudges, secrets, and reasons to betray her. But the vault has changed since Brenna designed it. Someone has been improving her work. And the High Warden who arrested her has been waiting five years for her to come back.