In the world of Syr Nebra, there is no such thing as magic, yet every human clings to their faith and country. Avery Roth is a wanderer scratching out a living in the hinterlands trying to avoid the religious zealots of The Cathedral and the imperial ambitions of The Seven Spires. But when a young woman and her paladin guardian literally run into him in the wild as they are fleeing bandits, he is entangled in a political web that tightens the more he struggles to free himself and others. Roth aids the duo on their way but in so doing is drawn into the duplicitous schemes of the elites from rival realms.