Six years after a conflict that extinguished all mage-light, Eiden Myr is in chaos. Wild weather destroys crops; drought bakes some regions while others are flooded; mountains quake, poisoned rivers rise; disease and pestilence spread. In a dying trader town, three little girls fight to protect a secret that could cost them their lives, while a young lad-of-all-crafts finds that local murders are the first clue to a chilling conspiracy. In the far north, the remnants of the realm's warders struggle to compensate for mage-light's loss. In the south, a military race is remembering its origins. Along the shoreline, a band of guerrilla fighters, posted to repel invasion, prepares to battle for mastery of the realm-while one woman, a disgraced soldier, summons the courage to defy them all. On a remote island, a new breed of scholars strives to plumb the mysteries of ancient texts before they crumble apart. Who among them is the binder destined to reshape the shattered world.