Young Jad the shepherd boy, in his first true act of magic, inadvertently initiates the collapse of an empire.

In the beginning, when the world is new, Jad the young shepherd stumbles upon his god, and his god is an idiot.

But before Jad can tell anyone, he and his friend, Tez, stumble across a soldier from a faraway land in the river, bleeding from a sword strike. He tells the boys that soldiers are coming to take their village, and kill anyone who resists.

Jad's father says they'll fight. Their god will protect them. The soldier says many gods have been fed to the expanding empire's terrible god eater, including his own. If only, he says, the village had a Speaker of magic—who Jad's father would deem a terrible heretic—only then might they be able to save their village.

And the soldier is looking directly to Jad.