All that Savannah wishes to do is study in the Sorceror's Quarter on Archaic, a world far removed from the Earth to which she can never return, but events conspire against this desire. Finding herself in the middle of a conflict between the Rever-Kaer and the Baobhan Sith, she has no choice but to fight for what she believes in... even if that does put her at odds with beings who could turn her to ash at any given moment. Concurrently, X3761 is a Teelian slave who discovers that his and his people's enslavement has been for the sole purpose of propping up another race's prosperity. When a strange orb comes to him down a mine shaft and professes revolutionary ideology, X grips this with both hands and begins a revolt against his Chargeman overlords. Can he convert his people to the cause and overthrow the Chargemen, or will they be massacred in the attempt? Finally, a conflicted Pirikan Queen continues to build her forces up and works to free Jasper, the one darkness that the universe cannot see loosed.