Fenra Lowens has been a working Practitioner, using her magic to heal, ever since she graduated from the White Court and left the City to live in the Outer Modes. One of her patients, Arlyn Albainil, is summoned to the City to execute the final testament of his distant cousin Xandra, a legendary Practitioner who is missing and presumed dead. Arlyn suspects the White Court intends to use him to access his cousin's vault which he knows contains a Godstone, an artifact so dangerous he can't allow it to be freed.

Fenra quickly realizes that there is no cousin, that Arlyn and Xandra are the same person. The Godstone almost destroyed the world and sealing it away left Arlyn powerless and ill. He needs Fenra to help him keep it, and the world, safe.