(As we don't want to give away too much, only the first three chapters will be outlined in-depth. The remainder of Book One will be described in a broad plot synopsis.)

The year is 5702, in the Common Age, 2170 years after the Purge of Magic in which all mages and magical beings were exiled from the continent of Darashan to the untamed land of Horishal, renamed Majitan. Two orphaned boys fight to live on the streets of D'n'cade City, the capital of Majitan. One, Riikos, is a quiet, often surly boy, but a born leader. He plans to lead the other orphaned children, including his best friend, the talkative and friendly Jarden, to a better life by teaching them the tricks of street thievery. However, in a heist gone terribly wrong, he kills a corrupt City Guardsman in an attempt to save Jarden's life. As a result, the boys are hunted down and brought in for questioning by the intimidating Council of High Mages. Against the express wishes of the High Council, the boys are sold into slavery by the City Guardsmen, who wish revenge for the death of their comrade. Riikos and Jarden are bought by a menacing group of figures who lead them to a strange army encampment by the sea, and are separated when Riikos is taken by the leader of the army, a man named Xaanic. Jarden is inducted into the army, and begins to befriend the other slave children as he learns to survive the rough-and-tumble life of a man-at-arms. Meanwhile, Riikos is learning a much more difficult lesson aboard Xaanic's ship - a lesson of pain and degredation.

In the same year, General Jerrad T'Rilis of E'dis City in Darashan takes his young daughter Arianna on a trip to Majitan in order to learn the ways of magic. Usually soft-spoken and timid, Arianna stands up for a young cleric and finds herself in the midst of mob violence. When her father rushes in to defend her, the mob turns homicidal and Arianna runs for her life. A good-natured herbalist finds her huddling in the forest in tears, and takes the young woman in as Cleric of the Light Dran Cragthorne comes upon the scene of the mob, arriving too late to save General T'Rilis. In a miracle not even he understands, he brings the man back form the dead, but with none of his memories. Days later, the herbalist comes to the Shrine of the Light in search of Arianna's father, but he has already left, hoping to find some clue as to his previous life. Arianna, heartbroken, vows to search Majitan for her wandering father, and Dran chooses to accompany her on her quest.

On Darashan, a shadow-sprite (a creature made of shadows and the very fabric of magic) is created by an aging mage, who dies in the course of casting the intricate spell. Awakening with no direction and no identity, the small being begins to investigate the delapidated tower in which he finds himself. He names himself Vimm after a passage he finds in a book, and spends his days studying the books he discovers in the tower's library.

Elsewhere in Darashan, lizardkin K'leth Rossk, son of K'lissk (Wymkiller) Rossk, arrives home at last from his Chieftan trials. He greets his family and finds that his sister has married the wordly G'noth Slith, of the Slith tribe of Majitan. Together, K'leth and G'noth attempt to persuade Chieftan K'lissk that his outdated ideas of trade with other races are no longer beneficial to the tribe. However, K'lissk refuses to listen, and K'leth storms out, fuming. Later that night, when he returns to apologize, K'leth finds that his father has been murdered... with K'leth's own weapons. G'noth frames him for the death of his father, and K'leth is exiled in the way of the lizardkin. He dons the grey cloak of exile and becomes a ghost to his people. Desolate and grieving, K'leth wanders into a human village, where he is badly injured and rescued by a tiny gnomish woman named Allura. After recovering, K'leth vows to take revenge on G'noth, and hunts the traitor to a small encampment in the middle of the forest. He overhears a strange conversation between two men, named Xaanic and Zorbius. However, he is soon discovered, and Zorbius changes into his true form, that of the last remaining Dragon on Auli. K'leth attempts to fight the Dragon, but is badly beaten, and saved by a strange presence in the forest. When he awakes, again in the care of the gnomish woman Allura, he accepts her offer of lessons in magic and vows to kill G'noth and free his people.

Ten years later, Riikos, now the protégé of Xaanic, is a cold-blooded killer on a mission to assassinate the General of an opposing army.  In order to do so, however, he must gain the trust of Dran, Arianna, K’leth, Vimm, and Jarden.  His quest, if successful, will bring the city of E’dis to its knees – but discovery is only a heartbeat away, and the most complicated of emotions could destroy all his plans.