At Sol, Adrian Farkas—Lord Sentinel of the Empire, prepares the defenses for the inevitable attack by the Legions of the Shara Daim—the third race created by the human and Nel ancestor Axull Darr. The Shara Daim come for the device left by their common ancestor, their Elders planning to use it to fulfill their goal of ruling the galaxy. But Adrian has plans of his own. But even as the Shara Daim Legions assemble for their invasion of Sol, Adrian and the Empire's fleets move to fulfill a promise made long ago to the race that had enslaved and destroyed Earth—the Ra'a'zani.

Anessa, Dai Sha of the Shara Daim, finds herself a prisoner for the first time in her life, her only hope of seeing her people again a promise made by her captor—Lord Sentinel of the Empire. But imprisonment holds even greater dangers, as her captor's ideologies clash with her own beliefs. But as the Shara Daim and the Empire prepare to go to war, another player schemes in the shadows. The Erasi have their own plans for the Shara Daim, and the Empire just became a part of them.

The Empire is faced with a war that could signal its fall, and Adrian is the only thing standing between his people and two empires set on pushing their own interests. The only chance he has of stopping the war that the Empire can't win, is to change the mind of his prisoner—Dai Sha Anessa.