THE STORY Six months after their escape from the Zagros Mountains, Roman brothers Marcus and Gaius Valerius thought they had bought their freedom. They buried the cursed Golden Garum deep in the desert, hexed and sealed. They paid the price in blood and madness. Surely that was the end. They were wrong. Broke and hunted, living in a cramped harbor safe house in Antioch, they're approached by an old scholar named Alaric. He smells of sulfur and forbidden knowledge. He's been listening to storytellers in the souks, collecting whispers about treasures older than Rome. And he's found something that could change everything: the Opobalsamum. The Balm of Gilead. The tears of the sun. Sacred resin that grows only in hidden groves near Jericho, worth twice its weight in gold. The priests have guarded these trees for a thousand years. Solomon himself planted them. The sap doesn't just smell extraordinary it allegedly opens doors. Doors to understanding. Doors to knowledge that Rome fears. The job seems straightforward: infiltrate the royal estates, steal the resin, transport it south to Egypt, sell it to merchants who will ask no questions. Money. Anonymity. A new life. But nothing is straightforward in the ancient East. Happy Reading!