The Children of the Solstice

Gaia was once a wealthy and beautiful planet. Then a mysterious spore plague brought life to a standstill, and the interstellar empire turned its back on the crippled world.

Only one last tradition still links Gaia with Uranos, the empire's capital: on the day of their fifteenth birthday, all girls born on the winter solstice and all boys born on the summer solstice are sent to Uranos. There they are trained as priestesses of the goddess Luna or as guards of the god Phoebus – and from then on, their fate lies in foreign hands.

Amber and Leto have been friends since earliest childhood. Both must take up their service in Uranos – and both are desperate: daredevil Amber can't imagine a life of quiet contemplation, while hard combat training is torture for the shy, artistic Leto. So they hatch a plan: what if they secretly swap identities?