Yolken stood atop the tallest building in the empire-a place he didn't want to be-pondering a problem he didn't know how to solve. The sun was dying. Millennia of Synthesizing, fueled by greed and a never-ending thirst for power, had knocked it out of balance. And if he doesn't figure out how to stop it, the sun will destroy Dradonia along with everyone he loves.

Meanwhile, freshly reconciled with Yolken, Javen's finds himself once again doing his brother's bidding. Still unaccustomed to his newfound role as the Regent of Onta and haunted by past failures, he finds himself woefully unprepared for what Yolken asks him to do next.

Hadie has freed the Southern Realm from the Blessed's oppressive rule, but she quickly realized their freedom came at a high cost. It is now up to her to find a way to protect her people from the increasingly deadly environmental catastrophes destroying her fledgling kingdom.

And finally, after suffering a humiliating defeat to Yolken and his allies, Drenan is more determined than ever to cauterize loose ends that have plagued him for centuries. To succeed, he must risk traveling to a part of the empire isolated long ago by deadly storms. What he finds there will all but guarantee his success.