Berlin’s pulsing underground clubs are Elias Vanderlyn’s sanctuary, a world away from the hushed reverence of her father’s shadow puppet theatre. Elias, a young woman with eyes the color of a stormy Baltic sea, feels a growing chasm between herself and her father, Bahram, a renowned puppeteer exiled from Iran. His art, once a source of family pride, now seems like a fading echo of a homeland he can never return to.
When Bahram vanishes, leaving behind only an unfinished shadow puppet of the mythical hero Rostam and cryptic notes in Farsi, Elias’s world shatters. The notes speak of a hidden network of migrant theaters scattered across Europe, sanctuaries for exiled artists, and a shadowy organization known as the Keepers of Tradition, silencing anyone who dares to blend ancient art with modern dissent. Driven by grief and a desperate need for answers, Elias plunges into the labyrinth of her father’s secret life.
Her search leads her from the vibrant streets of Paris, where she meets Zara, a flamenco dancer whose fiery spirit echoes Elias’s own yearning for belonging, to the ancient ruins of Rome, where Dimitri, a Greek poet, reveals the true danger her father faced. With each encounter, Elias uncovers fragments of her father’s past, a past intertwined with a dangerous act of defiance against the Keepers. As she delves deeper into the world of shadow puppetry, she discovers a latent magic within the ancient stories, a magic the Keepers desperately seek to control.
But the Keepers are closing in, their shadowy agents disrupting performances and silencing voices. Elias must choose: cling to the life she knows or embrace the power of her heritage, a power that could save her father and protect the network, but also a power that threatens to consume her. From the bustling bazaars of Tehran to a heart-stopping confrontation in the ruins of an ancient caravanserai, Elias must learn the language of the shadows, not just to manipulate figures of light and shade, but to awaken the magic within and confront the forces threatening to extinguish it.
In a climactic battle of wills and ideologies, Elias faces the leader of the Keepers, a figure shrouded in both shadow and political influence. The fate of the network, the legacy of migrant artists, and the very soul of storytelling hang in the balance.
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