Atla has come home, but Vessit is a town still reeling from disastrous Realmquakes and the reappearance of the man blamed for them; Rissad Van Raighan. Rissad claims extraordinary new powers and knowledge, but no-one can tell if he can be trusted. Worse, Rissad has somehow learned Atla's deepest secret: his experience in the Second Realm has left him and his Gift irrevocably changed.