Content Warning: This guide includes descriptions of violence typical of fantasy warfare and elements of danger.

The story begins in Drylliad, the Carthyan capital, a month after the events of The False Prince. Jaron, the protagonist and narrator, is the newly crowned king of Carthya and is about to attend his family’s funeral. His parents, King Eckbert and Queen Erin, and his older brother Darius were killed by Bevin Conner. Conner is a traitorous regent who, in the first book of the series, trained orphans to take the place of prince Jaron, believed to be lost at sea after a pirate attack four years earlier. One of the orphans, Sage, was in fact the real prince Jaron, kept away from the court for his own safety and now returned to his rightful throne.

While he takes a moment to compose himself in the castle’s gardens before the funeral, Jaron is ambushed by two assassins. He knocks the first one out but is overpowered by the second one. Jaron recognizes him as Roden, his former friend now turned enemy.