With the help of friends and Temple, Phaedra, Eldren, Torin, and Merethyl vanquished Aurelius. His army is fractured, having lost their foothold across Terra with no one to command them, and Temple celebrates victory even as nations start the process to overthrow the remains of the once feared necromancer's army.

But it’s not over. Almost immediately someone has stepped into the void left by Aurelius’s death and is targeting Phaedra. Eldren and Merethyl are assigned to recover the Godstones that Aurelius and Cristiano once held, and Torin is tasked with keeping Phaedra safe from the power-hungry generals that are trying to exact their revenge.

The problem is narrowing down who it is. There is more than one choice for who it could be, but both wield an old magic, older than all but the elves can recall, based on manipulation and control. One of them uses sound and one uses nightmares, and Torin has to guess who the puppeteer is behind the attacks before someone gets lucky.