This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.

*This audiobook has been auto-narrated by Google AI British male narrator Archie. Ted's voice by Google AI British male narrator Alistair. Aniela and Mina by Google AI British female Anya. Florry and Doris by Google AI British female Ava.*


Before Scolaris needed a Custodian, it needed a boy willing to disappear.


Long before he became Custodian of the Great Library in the walled city of Scolaris, Will Wittgenstein was just a fisherman's son named Ted, hiding a secret in a coastal village that didn't ask questions, until the night it had to.


Gormsey is a hard, salt-worn place, and Ted's home is harder than most. His father's fists have taught him and his mute sister, Doris, to survive by staying quiet. Then Ted wakes to find both his parents murdered, and the local patrol decide, in under an hour, that Doris did it.


Ted knows she couldn't have. He also knows that in a village this small, the truth is the one thing everyone would rather not find. With his sister's life on the line and no one left to trust, he has to choose between the only home he's ever known and the one thing that might save her. Leaving it, and becoming someone Gormsey will never recognise again.


The Death of Hope is the prequel to The Scolaris Chronicles. It's the origin story of the man Quill will one day call Master.