Beneath the hallowed spires of Cambridge, an ancient secret stirs. A secret that could rewrite reality itself.

Dr Eleanor Croft, a brilliant scholar haunted by a dark past, is thrust into the heart of a terrifying conspiracy. The Pelican Society, a shadowy organization with tendrils reaching into the highest echelons of power, has resurfaced. Their goal: to unleash the power of the Arca, a mysterious artifact, during a rare Celestial Conjunction.

Forced into their service, Eleanor becomes their unwilling architect, tasked with deciphering the ‘Celestial Cartogram’ – an arcane map promising an ‘ultimate harmonisation’, a new age of chilling, absolute order. But the price of this new dawn is human freedom itself.

From the hidden archives of ancient colleges to the windswept desolation of Scotland's Clava Cairns, Eleanor must play a deadly game of intellectual chess. Armed only with her intellect and a trail of cryptic clues hidden in seventeenth-century texts and forgotten symbols, she races against time to sabotage their Great Work from within.

As the celestial engine ignites, Eleanor’s desperate gambit comes to a head. Can she unravel the Society’s monstrous plan before they re-tune the very fabric of existence? Or will the Swan’s descent usher in an age where dissonance, rebellion, and the human spirit are silenced forever?

The Pelican's Gambit: Some secrets are not meant to be kept. Some codes are not meant to be broken. Some destinies are not meant to be rewritten.