Akmenos only ever wanted to bake a perfect soufflé, but the murder of an elvish prince at his banquet table sweeps him into a spiral of intrigue, deception and betrayal which is bigger than even his biggest casserole dish. Caught in a desperate struggle between warring nations and shadowy organisations, Akmenos must stay one step ahead of the sinister figures intent on hunting him down ‒ his own brothers among them ‒ while he tries to clear his name, unmask the true killer, and find a decent cup of tea. Stumbling from one misadventure to another across continents and planes as the world and his family crumble around him, Akmenos will need to be stronger than he ever thought he could be ‒ stronger even than the blue cheese down the bottom of the larder that should’ve been thrown out months ago.

If falling into a volcano is the worst thing that happens to Akmenos today, he'll be happy. It took the breaking of a heart for him to escape the clutches of his brother Hrodok and Scimitar, scion of the diabolical Eternal Stair, but will his entry into the halls of the Holy Flame bring him sanctuary, or is this descent merely a fall into deeper, darker chaos, like chili dissolving in chocolate?Determined to clear his name and bring Cordax back to life, Akmenos agrees to go in search of the Eternal Stair, dooming himself to the same quest his brother Thurgrin had been on when he was lost, years before. But the empire is crumbling, and the world is turning against him with every passing hour, souring like cream in the sun. And what are these secrets of his past-so secret even Akmenos doesn't know them-that have turned so many eyes his way without so much as a sticky pudding for his troubles?Surrounded and hunted by monsters and murderers, can Akmenos unlock the secrets of the Eternal Stair and bring Cordax back from the brink of whatever it is a mecha might call death, before his goose is truly cooked?

It’s not every day you meet the sisters your dad never told you about, and the first thing they do is criticise your cooking. But even if they are rogues and smugglers without a whit of culinary appreciation, if Aralea and Kaia can help Akmenos find a heart for Cordax and bring her back to life, that’s a fish he’s willing to fry. Armed with little more than a recipe for success and the hope that he can trust these sisters more than his murderous, treacherous brothers, Akmenos sets off across the Aetheric Plane, while all the enemies he’s been trying to avoid close in around him. Not to mention his other sisters, the real pirates, who seem awfully keen to meet him, though not in a friendly way. Because the universe has a way of balancing out its flavours. Can Akmenos and the strange new friends he meets along the way outwit the guest list of foes who want him served up on their menu? For this family dinner, Akmenos is going to need to really cook up a storm if he wants to make it as far as the dessert trolley.