Betrayal on the scale of nations. Under cover of darkness, the Aemarian Empire invades its sleeping ally. Feymar Dal-Horus commands the onslaught and sets the First People’s Republic alight. Natolk’ya Neezh’na, a young nurse, awakens to the thunder of cannon fire. Escaping obliteration with her little brother, their parents lost, the only road to safety is choked with the Republic’s destitute and displaced. But all wars have their cost. And far away in his homeland, a new wave of repression will swallow Dal-Horus’s family as well. Meanwhile, ancient powers are changing in the world, and the fate of empires will turn on the decisions of an old soldier and a hapless nurse.