Meaido, son of Gadinn’s illegitimate child Gendjou, has spent years training under his father’s eye while an unknown master watches from the shadows. But when Gendjou discovers he is the king’s discarded blood, bitterness turns to ambition. Determined to claim a throne he believes should have been his, he sets a brutal chain of events into motion.

After Gendjou falls in battle, Meaido inherits more than grief. He inherits rage, purpose and a hatred that sharpens into obsession. Slipping into the kingdom through its own recruitment system, he draws close enough to strike, only to be foiled and cast out. Banished and broken, Meaido crosses paths with the Dark Mardern, and the enemy at his side may become the making of him.