Five ancient creatures. Five extraordinary voices. Each one a world unto themselves. Each one with a stake in what is coming.
The dragons have playlists. Four of them, so far. 45 tracks. Full liner notes. Some Easter eggs. →
Michelangelo de St. Exupéry-Antoine
The Golden Dragon of Anglezarke
Michelangelo has lived beneath Anglezarke Moor for longer than anyone alive can remember. He feels gold the way you feel temperature — not as a concept, as a physical reality. He sees patterns where everyone else sees noise. He trades, he watches, he waits. He has more patience than any creature has a right to.
He also wears reading glasses while reclining on a pile of cushions. Make of that what you will.
Michelangelo has known EJ’s destiny since she was born. He didn’t tell her immediately. He had his reasons.
Guanzhong Nai’En
The Jade Dragon of Beijing
Nai’En has advised Chinese emperors since the Tang Dynasty. He considers this entirely natural. He considers most things about himself entirely natural — his wisdom, his importance, his intimate relationship with the current Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party, his extraordinary jade scales ranging from deep sea-green to near-translucent white.
He is not necessarily wrong about any of it. Thus, he can also be completely insufferable. Of course, these two things are not in the least bit contradictory, especially to Nai’En himself.
Nai’En also reads minds. You will know this, because he will tell you immediately. He considers it his least interesting trait, more a party trick than a matter of any importance.
Madame Kartika Basuki Hendra Farida Sastrowardoyo
The Coal Dragon of Mount Merapi
Kartika has ruled over Gunung Merapi for centuries. Coal-black, wingless, rich beyond any normal measure — crowned with a Javanese sultan-queen’s golden tiara and the fragrant smell of burning cloves. She calls everyone “sayang”, when she bothers to address them at all. It is both an endearment and an instrument of power, though by no means her only one.
Of our five dragons, she is the most complex. She presents as imperious, theatrical, faintly amused by everything. Underneath that she is both the warmest, and the most quietly heartbroken. She has outlived everything she has loved. She keeps going anyway.
Kartika did not call EJ to her destiny. She waited. When the moment came, on the slopes of her own mountain, she acted. There is a difference. Kartika understands that difference.
Al-Khwarizmi Ibn Shams ad’Din (Riz)
The Silicon Dragon
Riz was once a living, breathing dragon – though at something of an existential dead end in the dunes of the Sahara. But then humans went and invented computers, and he now exists simultaneously across every network on earth. Silicon chips. Or as he might say, “It’s the sand, dude”. He speaks California tech bro when he’s relaxed, but a clean precise English from a far older time when something actually matters. Pay attention when the register shifts.
He was the first to see EJ for her true self. Before Kartika named it. Before Michelangelo admitted it. Riz just knew.
Jacinto Saavedra Cervantes i Domenech
The Oil Dragon
Jacinto Saavedra Cervantes i Domenech made a bargain a very long time ago. On a storm-lashed night on Lake Maracaibo in 1973, he gave his word — and his word, once given, was the only thing that couldn’t be taken from him. That bargain built the world’s largest oil company. It cost him more than he could have ever known.
He is scathingly intelligent. He does not suffer fools. But he is not a villain. He is something far more interesting than that.
Very few have ever known his full name. He would accept nothing less, for in the end it is the only honour he holds.
The dragons have playlists. Four of them, so far. 45 tracks. Full liner notes. Some Easter eggs.
Meet them in the book
Five dragons. Five voices. One destiny. Available now at the Founders’ Circle price.