This work includes 70 unique full-color illustrations created specifically for this 8.5" by 11" novel. Synopsis: A vibrant world connects to a world of monsters, ruins, and treasure known as the Shift World. One in ten thousand people are shifters who travel between the two worlds. Shifters create empires, become merchant barons, and influence much of the world's culture. Schools teach about shifters' exploits, and shifters even dictate fashion and entertainment. Children dream about a life of adventure in the Shift World.A young shifter named Karp was saved from the brink of death in a small trading post, the Village of the Traitor's Tavern. While recovering, she befriended the general store's manager, Slart, and apprenticed under a local shifter named The Whitecoat. Slart, Slart's adopted son, and The Whitecoat became Karp's family, and the Village of the Traitor's Tavern became her home. Karp's idyllic life, though, is threatened by a spreading sickness that rends a shifter's life force, leaving behind only an empty husk. An encounter with a mysterious stranger in the Shift World almost kills Karp on the general store's floor. To save her new home and family, Karp will search the ruins of the Shift World for weapons, befriend powerful allies, defeat unrelenting enemies, and avert an unclear calamity looming over everything