Each autumn, as shadows lengthen, Sparta unleashes the Crypteia – a sanctioned day when any Spartan may hunt and kill Helots without consequence. Part training, part terror, it keeps the enslaved in fear. In the secluded valley of Demus, long untouched by this ritual, young Helot ILIAS secretly trains in Spartan ways, dreaming of becoming a warrior. But when unexpected Spartans arrive, the valley’s fragile peace ruptures, awakening a violent force within the village and drawing deadly attention from Sparta itself. As true Spartan killers close in, Ilias is thrust into a reckoning he cannot escape.
