The Times were murky, the future dark. Tarshannan was losing the war it fought to separate itself from the Hammerian Federation. Its overlord sent Zargus on a mission that she led him to believe was mostly diplomatic. The first of many surprises ambushed him soon after his mission began. Some surprises would prove more pleasant, while he navigated political seas and dealt with operational protocols. Though his great loss devastated him, his gains tested him more. He had embarked on a new stage of his life, fraught with shifting obstacles and objectives promising to keep him zigzagging through the fog of uncertainty toward unexplored regions of his destiny....