The Shroud is gone. After fourteen hundred years it is finally destroyed and the Luminari Elves have reclaimed Krysenthiel. When the Battle of Arenthyl ended, they sought the protection of Arenthyl's soaring defensive walls while the Erynien Empire's legions retreated and vanished. But Erynor is not one to flee from a battlefield and his army could be anywhere, waiting to strike. What does the emperor have next in store for the Lucillian Alliance?

The Crystal Throne sits empty while Devlyn and Ellendren prepare to take their place as the Exalted Aryl of Krysenthiel. They must not only maintain unity among the Elves but call the larger world back to the Guardian Senate. The world must come together if it is to survive, for an evil greater than Erynor is on the horizon.

Devlyn and Ellendren are acutely aware that they are not equipped to face this greater evil should it be unleashed on the living. How could they succeed as only two Phaedryn when hundreds of Phaedryn had failed against Erynor's rise to power? He is but a pawn of Ramiel.