Ophelia has become Vice-storyteller to Farouk, the ancestral Spirit of the Pole. Now that her powers - and the threat they present - are known to all, she is forced to reveal the nefarious plots that have been brewing in Citaceleste and to throw herself into the political machinations of the Pole. In this perilous situation, the only person she may be able to trust is Thorn, her enigmatic fiance. As one after another influential courtier vanishes in suspicious circumstances, Ophelia again finds herself unintentionally implicated in an investigation that will lead her to see beyond the Pole's many illusions to the heat of the formidable truth.