Azzadul, the god-king, the Lord of Light revered by many. When the darkness corrupted him, he became the Dark Lord, feared the world over. His magic, once a gateway to immortality for his people, delved instead into horrors as he sought ever deeper levels of mastery. Children were stolen from their beds, coveted for his blood-rites. When he vanished, it all ended, and the people of the world tried to forget, to move on… Jak Fuller is an orphan who has wandered from town to town as long as he can remember. He's never tried to find a home. He's only tried to escape the memory of a burning woman, to keep moving. Born ten years after Azzadul's disappearance, rumors of the Dark Lord's horrors have never mattered to him, until he comes to Fort Lasthall... A legendary town on the outskirts of the Dark Lord's former kingdom, Jak has felt called to it ever since the day he's heard of it. And now that he's arrived, he can't help but notice how easy life has become, as though he's meant to be here in this place before the mountains, where magic and stories of dragons abound, the one place Azzadul's power never could touch... Where blood rites are practiced in secret, and conspirators who have never forgotten the Dark Lord's ways are everywhere, even among those most trusted... And they have been waiting for Jak a long time. Fire & Blood is the first part in the 5-part serial publication of A Thousand Roads.