You can’t choose your parents. Outside the building where she’s just brokered peace–again–with Julian Davion, Danai Liao-Centrella wipes her hands of the sickness of her parents. Her life is her own. Her duty is to the state. And with the Republic making rumblings, the Clans digging deeper into former Republic space, her duty is clear: preserve the state. At any cost. Her father, Chancellor Daoshen Liao, is head of the state and its armies. Acclaimed, as all Capellan chancellors are, the ‘Celestial Wisdom’ of the Confederation, he alone decides policy. By giving up New Syrtis, Danai has broken with that policy. He will not be pleased. She doesn’t care. Her duty is to the state. And for the state to survive, the entire campaign against the Davion Federated Suns must be abandoned. There is a richer prize in sight. A greater threat. The Republic of the Sphere is coming out from behind its wall. The Capellan Confederation must be ready.