Where magic is dark and gritty, characters troubled and twisted, and victory comes at a heavy price. Following the destruction of the City of Glass through an explosion of sonorics, huge numbers of refugees have descended upon the Chevakian capital Tiverius. The refugees are mostly members of the rebel group Brotherhood of the Light, supporters of the old royal family. They are injured, scared and hungry, and few speak Chevakian. The young Queen Jevaithi and her lover Isandor are amongst them, safe from the Eagle Knights for now. Young Eagle Knight Carro is waiting in an old farmhouse with his fellow Knights for the order to invade the camp, capture the Queen and deliver her back to his father, where she will continue to live as imprisoned puppet for the Knights' tyranny. The Chevakians know none of this, and struggle to contain the refugee population, and the dangerous sonorics contamination the people have brought from their ravaged country, contamination that defies Chevakian efforts to contain it, and is getting worse, not better. In their struggle for power, the Brotherhood and the Knights disturbed something from an ancient and magic civilisation. The sorcerer Tandor knows what happened, but he is on death row in a Chevakian jail. The southern woman Loriane is aware of the things that are required, but she is amongst Chevakians who can't understand her. The Chevakian proctor Sadorius han Chevonian could put the pieces of the puzzle together, but he is struggling to keep the peace, and besides, Chevakians don't believe in magic. Meanwhile, the massive, and malevolent, sonorics cloud drifts towards the city, hungry for revenge.