The great Envoy ships have returned from their three-thousand year mission in time to save OLMAC from destruction by the TELREC. And yet, with all the hope their return entails, still Suld wallows in misery. His ancestral seat has been destroyed, and he fears revolt from within his company. And yet, he sees a friend in Graid. He feels love from Theia, last leader of the Iganinagi, who brings a powerful message back about the clones. He has learned about Kolob, and the Ascension. And the political landscape is about to be rocked by the return of Ellore, another of his allies. Yet behind it all, the titans of this struggle for supremacy; Graid, Denged, Uonil, and Suld, have a growing sense that they are but pawns in a game rigged by the sentient sun, Mal, the depths of whose power are only now beginning to be revealed. And Kolob is still the piece that will determine the fate of all.