In the letumosis research lab, the head of research, Dr. Kai hopes that if she has spent most of her life on Earth, she’ll be more sympathetic to them than Levana is. Most believe that Princess Selene died in a fire when she was young, but there are rumors that she survived and fled Luna. Kai is also trying to find Princess Selene, Queen Levana’s niece and the true heir to the throne. While Levana wants to marry Kai to form an alliance, Kai is hesitant to do so. Lunars are notorious for being greedy and power-hungry because they have the “ gift,” meaning that they can telepathically manipulate people’s thoughts and actions. Rikan’s advisor, Konn Torin, suggests that he and Kai come up with a plan for the peace negotiations with Queen Levana (the ruler of Luna, the colony on the moon). Meanwhile, Prince Kai’s father, Emperor Rikan, also has letumosis and will likely die soon. Cinder protests, knowing that no one survives the testing, but the med-droids knock her unconscious and take her away. When Cinder returns to the apartment, Adri is furious with Cinder for putting Peony in danger, so she volunteers Cinder for cyborg letumosis research-she’ll be paid for Cinder’s contribution to the research. Med-droids soon arrive and take Peony to the quarantines, but Cinder tests negative for the disease. Suddenly, Peony’s skin begins to break out in splotches-she’s caught letumosis. There, Cinder finds a magbelt as well as an old gasoline car. Cinder decides to go with Peony and Iko, her android, to a junkyard to scavenge for a magbelt. When Cinder gets home from the market, her stepmother Adri is getting dresses fitted for Cinder’s stepsisters Pearl and Peony for the upcoming ball, but Adri says that she can’t afford both a dress for Cinder and new a magbelt for their hover. After he leaves, an outbreak of the deadly plague letumosis spreads through the market, and the baker, Chang Sacha, is taken to the quarantines.

As a cyborg, Cinder faces discrimination from people who believe she is less than human, so she keeps her identity hidden from Kai.

Just after this, the prince of the Eastern Commonwealth, Prince Kai, visits her booth and asks her to fix his android Nainsi, explaining that Cinder has a reputation as the best mechanic in New Beijing. One day, at her mechanic’s booth, Cinder struggles to remove her old, rusty mechanical foot and then fits herself with the new prosthetic she just purchased. Sixteen-year-old Cinder is a cyborg mechanic living in the futuristic city of New Beijing in the country of the Eastern Commonwealth.

Cinder series book order