As the "Great Mountain in the West speaks to the Sky with a Tongue of Flame", the Talisman Prophecy is on the verge of fulfillment. The rulers of the Lone Star Confederation are convinced that Clearwater's child - whose birth coincides to the second with the volcanic eruption - is the Thrice-Gifted One. And they hold both in their power. Cadillac and Steve's kin-sister, Roz, who have combined their formidable powers are determined to free her but Steve, lured by the prospect of a dazzling career within the First Family, is no longer certain who to support or betray. He has little time in which to decide for, in Ne-Issan, the land of the Iron Masters, a lone woman intent on avenging her dead lover is about to plunge her nation into a civil war that will set the whole continent ablaze