A year has past since that snowy day on the Bielston docks, and Preta finds herself a long way from home, on rough seas and with rough company, and that's the easy part. Every passing moment life hangs in the balance as she’s swept along on her magical journey. She seeks a way back to the familiar though her world continues getting more strange, dangerous, and mystifying by the day. From the tales of a senile old cook, to exotic ports and cities, to maneuvering through the secret realms of the ancients, to finding herself in the center of an international conspiracy that might upset the balance of power in the known world, Preta must navigate a fine line between what’s real and what’s not, all the while figuring out who and what she is becoming.