Raynor Fiet has walked a path that has stripped him of all but his honor, his duty and his skill with a sword. Now he finds that duty has saddled him with the protection of two sheltered youths, Ayden and Cyan, who know little outside their simple village life in the Arannite desert. Ayden and Cyan have been suddenly caught in a whirlwind of cutthroat political intrigue. They must trust Raynor to protect them from a deadly assassin clan, a magi-swordmaster gone mad, and the all-powerful Archmage who rules Arannus as king. Meanwhile, Celeste Enchelis, a young water mage from the north, finds herself in an arranged marriage to the Archmage's son, Prince Lucas. But her acceptance of the situation waivers when her mother's entourage is the victim of a bloody abduction. Suddenly, Celeste is alone, a stranger in a strange land, and in a predicament her magi training never prepared her for. And beyond the border of the Material Plane, past the dimensional boundaries, deep in the mosaic of the Spirit Realms, an ancient evil has begun to stir.