The world is dying, consumed by a scourge known only as the Blight. Those left behind crowd into coastal cities, if they are lucky. If not, they must wander the waste of the interior and pray that magic will soon find an answer. The only problem, some would say, is that magic is what caused the Blight in the first place. For Elias Whitsun, a magi once hailed as the next great prodigy, the world doesn't make sense anymore. Ten years are missing from his memory and the Enclave thinks he was involved in something dark and terrible, though Elias can't remember what. Lost in his own mind amid the sands of a dying world, a stranger wherever he goes, Elias struggles to find the effort to care about anything. When his path crosses with an angry, young war widow and her precocious son, his apathy meets an unexpected challenge, and he finds himself reluctantly hoping again. Most challenging of all is the stranger who joins them; a man whose mere gaze can stir up storm clouds in Elias' mind. Together with the Enclave guard sent to spy on Elias, the unlikely group braves the broken world in search of hope. But all is not what it seems, as they each carry a secret with them. And the greatest secret of all could lie in Elias's own mind, buried somewhere in his lost memories. A secret that could save the world.