Lycentia... the City of Light... the city where finance, friendship and faith are being blended together to produce what could be a fabulous future for all Betrovians.

Patrik, the recalcitrant innkeeper and Galena, his younger daughter, load up the wagon, lock up The Lonely Fox Inn and head east for Lycentia. The goal? To hand-deliver Harrak's scrolls, the ones Patrik discovered in a musty cave, to Oliver III, the Netherene High Priest. The problem? The scrolls are not what Patrik thinks they are! But how, if at all, can Patrik discover the truth before it's too late?

Who was this Harrak, the supposed author of these infamous scrolls? And why are the Lycentian Netherenes striving to eradicate Harrak's writings? Even to the point of killing those who express faith in those writings? Teophelus, the neophyte priest, is in love with both his calling and Patrik's daughter Galena: So just what are his motives for helping Patrik understand the true meanings hidden within those scrolls?

Edelin, the conniving, self-serving but lonely thief, nearly becomes entangled in a skirmish between Betrovian militiamen and Haarigoian raiders. He manages to elude the carnage and finds refuge in a village on the edge of the untamed Plains of Dreut. But not long after arriving there, he disappears into the night after stealing what may be the most-valuable piece of jewelry he has ever possessed. But might this bauble he now possesses lead Edelin into a future that no one would ever wish for?

Tamara is no longer the elder daughter of an innkeeper: She is now the wife of the King of Betrovia! She has the entire city of Lycentia at her beck and call. But why isn't she happy? Isn't this what she has always dreamed of? What, if anything, can bring her the happiness she desperately desires?