Arkady Ryswife is a devout member of the Iolite League, a religious society dedicated to building the better world of the future. Behind the scenes, however, he is an elite soldier, a member of a covert wing of the League that ensures its ends are met where peaceful means do not suffice.These operatives have a mission to recover crucial fragments of the world's lost, fractured history. Arkady's team is not the only one willing to kill for these relics - just the best. At least, until a fatal mistake leaves the team in shambles on the eve of what may be the most important mission of their lives. Forced back into the field without delay, Arkady and his companions must recover a piece of data that the League has been seeking for years. Still reeling from their loss, they must go behind enemy lines, outsiders in a notoriously xenophobic nation. Isolated and suspicious of betrayal at every turn, they plunge into the web of one of the world's most astonishing mysteries, a journey from which none of them will return unscathed.