What does it mean to be a king? Is it a thing ordained by the gods, or to be seized with an iron fist? Or, is it something else entirely, something visceral to a man himself that makes him a king? And what happens to the man when that crown is taken away?

Balazar, née Valerian, is such a man. At the age of fifteen this heir to the throne of Valeria is stripped of his very identity when his city is sacked by the power-mad regicide, Fantar. Fleeing with his life, and living under an assumed name, Balazar begins a fifteen-year struggle for revenge, as Fantar ravages city after city all around the Inland Sea.