Jon returns to The Threshold for his second year with a place in the school but little certainty about what comes next.
After declaring Combat, he appears on the rankings board at fifty-fourth and enters the Threshold Trials as an unlikely fill-in. The system was built for students unlike him, and every result changes how other people see him.
As the Trials test endurance, judgment, and belonging, Jon must find out what he can do before the institution decides what he is worth.