"I want to go home."

Orden is many things to many people: ally, rival, safe haven. Her government, an icon of prosperity and security to the public eye, hides more than one weakness beneath. And when a jealous feud spanning manslaughter, trade rights, and generations erupts to life, the politics of nations suddenly become an everyday concern for young Mordred Kenhelm, whose civilian life is uprooted in the first upheavals of war.

Mordred is on the run?from pain, from guilt, and from a bitterness destroying him inside out. He's all too eager to escape into the recklessness of every high-risk mission that comes his way. But wounds cannot be neglected forever, and seeking to do so may put more lives than his own at risk.

The paths of Ceristen's villagers diverge and converge over the waves of a brutal conflict. Many things will break, in the brunt of such a wave.

And some things will still heal.