When the dance with death ended, the Wrynd would come for them.

"Have you killed before?" Harley asked. Quinlan shook his head.

"You'll have to now."

Quinlan looked him in the eyes and then looked away. "I'll try."

"A steer tries, son," Harley replied, and Quinlan flinched. "You have to get this done. No hesitation. None. Do you understand? You kill, or you and your little ones die. There's nothing else. When the time comes, you kill everything in your way, and maybe we can walk away from this."

In the Seven Realms, wishes comes true with the blink of an eye. There is no war, no disease, no poverty, and no purpose. Humanity has achieved its dream of Elysium, casting the Old World aside. Everything beyond the Realms is Wilderness, where the Earth rages.

From the Wilderness comes the Castaway, Harley Nearwater. He walks a path of Chaos, a shadow of the Old World. As the sentient Earth threatens to destroy us in her rage, he seeks only a world where he might find peace and belonging. The Seven Realms searches for a leap in human evolution, the one who will guide them through the Dark Seas between planets. They believe the Castaway may be the leap. If Harley Nearwater is a leap in evolution, it is in the opposite direction. And one murderous step at a time, he is the harbinger of the destruction of both Old World and New. The end of everything is about to begin.