When Lance starts hearing voices in the deep hours of the night, he thinks he is losing his mind. He has nightmares that feel too much like memories of a childhood that doesn't make sense. To his knowledge, he has always lived in the Palace at Shadovane, has been a servant to the nobility for most of his life.  When the ruler of the Sun Empire arrives in Shadovane for a state visit, everything changes. He is enlisted into a conspiracy to undermine his queen and her volatile aristocrats, but he does not want what its leaders desire. With the newfound discovery of secrets that have been kept from him his entire life, he wishes only for escape from the palace and its lords, but the resistance is reluctant to get on board. Shadovane is their home, and they would much rather remain there, but without his newly awakened powers to communicate with the spirits of the elements, they cannot succeed in deposing their rulers and ushering in a new era of peace and prosperity for their people. If they go along with his wants, they must abandon their home.  Lance needs their help to escape from the palace, and start his new life on the outside, but to make his plans work, he needs to steal something from the queen herself, and he cannot hope to do it alone.