Ranya Mestrien is only six years old but she already knows she's a burden on her family. She should be able to manipulate Water at will. Instead she can barely move a droplet. It's unsurprising, then, that she spends more time with the despised tovariken, those without elemental magic, than in her own home. The night she slips away from a House dinner and nearly drowns, everything changes. It's not only the Scion who discovers her soaked on a jetty in the harbour, cradled by the Water Guardian himself. Her parents are there too. The Water Guardian's interest seems to indicate she's not as worthless as everyone thought and now the Scion, third in power in the House of Water, has plans for her. It turns out family isn't always who you're born to.