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Synopsis

Maquia belongs to the Iorph, an ancient people whose long lives keep them removed from ordinary human concerns. Orphaned as a child, she has long brooded over her isolation and secretly longs to see the world beyond her secluded community, though the clan’s leader forbids leaving. That isolation ends when the expansionist Mezarte kingdom attacks, wielding the remaining great beasts known as Renato and seeking the Iorph’s longevity for the royal line. The assault devastates Maquia’s homeland and most of her people are killed. Thrown from the battlefield by a rampaging Renato, Maquia awakens far from home amid ruined villages. There she discovers an abandoned infant and, despite knowing little about human society or how to care for a child who will age far faster than she does, resolves to raise him. She names him Ariel and faces the lone, sustained task of nurturing him while confronting her persistent loneliness and the unfamiliar demands of life among humans.