The Princess and the detective return to different receptions in the city of Alisandre Capital: one performs the royal ritual, and the other throws a coffee mug to start the day. Separate worlds possess a synchrony that grows closer now, woven through the journeys of characters throughout the Pan-Galaxy. Scion Princess Soleil is contacted by mysterious forces, who give her a hidden history - it becomes clear things are not as they seem in the Pan-Galactic court, from Her Vast Eminence Celeste, Magus the 24th, to the Ascendant pair, Charlotte and Vario. As #1 public enemy Raev Sturlusson creates stirring emergencies, networks fair and foul weave through the shadows around intergalactic events. Spheres align and collide in surprising turns, from the detective to the ambiguously employed corporate worker, the people behind them and the people behind them. What exactly are they up to? Something big, clearly dangerous, and very scientific. Catastrophic events involve shipping pilots who happen to know each other, who have time to volunteer; the semi-interested involvement of Dragonkind; and other non-human sentients, the extra-spectrum expressive Aquarii. From the strategy room to the lost streets, discover Alisandre and the Pan-Galactic Imperium through people within and without, as it all begins to change.