In her new role as Bethel's warden, Immanuelle struggles to unify her people and reckon with the strange new gifts she's wielded since the Slaughter; the community seethes with unrest. Worse still, Immanuelle's nights are haunted with gruesome dreams of Bethel's violent destruction.

When a band of wounded refugees from beyond the Wall comes to Bethel seeking sanctuary, Immanuelle realises that her nightmares of fire and blood are more than figments . . . they're prophecies of a coming war so brutal, it will make the horrors of the Slaughter seem tame in comparison.

Desperate to prevent these visions from becoming reality, Immanuelle embarks on a secret mission beyond the Wall, hoping to negotiate peace with the atheistic city-state of Hebron before the war can begin in earnest. Her quest takes her through war-ravaged wilds, ruined cities, and mountains teeming with hostile tribes . . . all the way to Hebron, where she meets two ruthless Grand Magisters - brother and sister - who are beind this war on superstition and mysticism.

Welcomed as a guest of the Grand Magisters' court, Immanuelle enters a dangerous world of politics and intrigue, where reason is prised, religion feared, and magic is outlawed on penalty of death. But as she works to stop the war, her powers continue to manifest, threatening to expose her true nature to the Grand Magisters, who would see her burned. Then negotiations fall apart, and Immanuelle realises that the only way she can end the war is to win it.