Ruin has come to Corelay. While the barbarians bring doom at the tip of a sword, Marilyse Beaujean and her comrades soon discover the true extent of the empire's infiltration. The cold war between the Strigoi and the Fallowmen bursts into flame at last, and the lies of the House of Simeon are laid bare. As the masks come off and the hidden villains behind this conflict finally step into the light, a new generation of heroes must take up the quest begun over forty years ago by their predecessors. Or else be consumed by it.
Meanwhile, in the frigid war zones of the distant east, Lic Simeon has become a leaf on the wind. Grossly outmatched and unable to flee, he sets out alone on a hopeless quest to save the capital of Estregg from betrayal from within. When the Seething World begins to intrude upon the land of the living, his duty as a Red Keeper compels him to stand firm against a new threat greater than anything Corelay has ever seen.