Hirka has always been a little bit different, ostracized because her tail was cut off when she was an infant, so it is unexpected that she's summoned to take place in this year's Rite -- and even more shocking that her adoptive father reveals she is a tailless, powerless, human whose kiss rots flesh. The Rite also looms for Rime, a popular young man whose discovery of Hirka's secret threatens his destiny on the Council, and Urd, who would literally...