"When Bren Aldric Ermendrud was chosen to attend the Soltryce Academy, everyone knew he would have an important future in service to the Empire. But nobody--least of all Bren himself--could foresee the cruelty he would endure, the ways in which it would break and remake him. Witness the events that transformed Bren into the Mighty Nein's Caleb Widogast, and how they informed the path he'd take in the future"--