The Young Elites

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child abuse, graphic violence, illness and death, emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual content, and self-harm.

A brief letter from Dtt. (Doctor) Siriano Baglio to Dtt. Marino Di Segna is dated Abrie (April) 31, 1348. In the Southeastern districts of Dalia, Kenettra, Baglio comments on 400 epidemic deaths in his vicinity. Events are canceled; food is scarce; quarantine continues. Aftereffects in some children who recover include strange scars without injury and unnatural hair color. He seeks advice.

A map precedes the note: Kennetra is an island nation in the Sealands. The Skylands are shown along the northern edge of the map and the Sunlands along the southern edge. Both are much bigger land masses than Kenettra.

The setting for the first three chapters is the city of Dalia in Southern Kenettra of the Sealands. The date is Juno (June) 13, 1361. Brief headers quoting various Kenettran texts introduce each chapter.

Sixteen-year-old Adelina Amouteru is imprisoned for murder and awaiting execution the next morning. In a flashback to a night weeks before, she overheard her father arranging to sell her as a mistress to a nobleman.