In the late 1820s, the young, recently orphaned Robin was torn away from a plague-ridden Canton (modern-day Guangzhou) by the cold, haughty Professor Lovell. At Lovell’s home, Robin is trained in Latin and Greek, as well as enough English and Cantonese to keep his knowledge of both languages intact, until he is eighteen. Then he is sent to the towering Royal Institute of Translation at Oxford, more colloquially known as Babel. There he learns the secret knowledge that’s enabling the British Empire to dominate its rivals: a type of magic known as “silverworking” that depends on silver etched with “match-pairs” (translated pairs of words that have similar but not precisely the same meanings). These are able to create illusions and even affect the material world based on the subtle combinations of meanings they’re imbued with.