It has been three years since the undead king's vengeance has shattered the mage council to smithereens. Rosha returns to find the keepers of Eheldeth slowly losing the very essence that gives weight and meaning to their lives. But that is the least of their problems. A self-proclaimed king has emerged, with ambitions that threaten to bring civil war from one end of the continent to the other. To make matters worse, his rise to power is bolstered by outlaws-the very same outlaws the school has hunted down for hundreds of years.
As the magical fabric that holds the empire together begins to crumble from the recklessness of its guardians, Rosha, Nasuha, and Felan must reckon with the consequences of their past and their place in an empire that holds no room for the broken.