Ralena was raised to be wary of magic. Now she finds that she is magic, and must seek refuge from the sorcerers she fears. Her starshield pendant holds a stone connecting her to an evil which murdered her mother, but its protections hide Ralena. Mordon wears a starshield as he leads the Council of Sorcerers. When ripples of an extraordinary magic interrupt the council, he races south to bind it. Instead, he's caught in a sorcerers trap, and must betray his new apprentice to defeat the greatest evil of their time: Betrayer Jagon, sinister mind-reader and creator of the sansanima, the soulless. Ril is a shapeshifter, one of the Esse, and guardian of the starshields. With his partner, Anka, he has planted a many-layered trap in Ralena's mind for Betrayer Jagon, keeping her unaware of her lineage to him, her magic, or her purpose. When Ralena discovers their deceptions, she searches her soul and begins to unravel the mysteries of the Esse, threatening what took Ril a hundred years to craft. And something else dwells within the dimension of the starshields, spying on their lives, mystifying even the Esse.