Year 2301 One month has passed since the death of Lady Vinya. Since the night sky went black in the sudden disappearance of the Moon. In the aftermath of the vanishing, the scales of the Balance have been disrupted and angered, the dark repercussions felt from the ruined lands of the Outerworld to the floating island home of the gods. Only now do the gods of Illyria stir, their period of mourning coming to a close as they call for a grand tournament. One that will decide the next Hand--a god worthy and powerful enough to pull the Moon back onto this plane. Of the contenders for the Throne, one is a malevolent prince of the Sun, another a twenty-armed inventor, and the third a disgraced father. But when thirteen-year-old Ionikus Reaves--Guardian of the gods and one-third child of the late Lady Vinya--is forced to volunteer as a competitor, Ion discovers this tournament and the gods who called for it aren't what they seem. For as he battles his way through the abandoned cities of the Outerworld, forced to fight for a Throne he doesn't want, Ion soon realizes he's not just a contender. But a pawn in a vicious game of the gods', where at the end, victory could mean death. And the destruction of the Moon itself.