Thousands of innocent genetic deviants. One Queen who wants them dead. Can a feared woman win the trust of her enemies to save Lower Earth from its own depravity? Food is even more scarce as "crop killers" become commonplace. The former Queen, Maeva, is reduced to disregarded advisor, and the researchers of Central Tower are forced to pick their loyalty: to Queen or to scientific truth. Standing tall and at last self-confident, Leadon learns the hard way that Lower Earth is not the promised land of her childhood dreams. When she takes over leadership of the original peoples of Lower Earth, she's stunned to learn that humanity is being stripped away right from the top of their society. Queen Ariane is not who she pretends to be. Where her mother had ruled with the blood of her enemies on her hands, Ariane is not so specific. If she deems a people worthy, they will flourish. But if she deems them useless to Lower Earth, she will have them eliminated. Leadon witnesses the Queen’s evil when the lives of thousands of children are suddenly in the balance. Considered "too far along to save", a generation of incubates aren't worthy to live, or so says Queen Ariane. Leadon is torn: she is desperate to redeem the Ganese people, indigenous to the land and systematically reduced to prisoners of a contained region of the country. But Leadon has enemies. The Ganese warrior priestesses have a reputation for ruthlessness, generations old mistrust lives among those who fear their attack. Now, with the imminent death of innocent thousands and panic infused as a tool of control, Leadon will have to convince those who'd sooner string her up that they must combine forces. Otherwise the very humanity that kept Lower Earth alive in the wake of the Final War risks dying in the hands of lies, propaganda, and an army of Guards who do the Queen's bloody bidding. And through it all, the birth of a single child holds the promise of a future… which is why he must be shut away in the back alleys of Cork Town… In Selfsame, Lower Earth had to look itself in the eye. In Culling, Lower Earth must run from its own reflection.