Bex wanted proof of her hero's tales and justice for his murder. What she found went far beyond the entertaining tales and laid bare the falsehoods of her life. So, when the Lesitha Crystal slips into the hands of her kidnapper, she must follow him into a world of smog, augmented half-lifes, and a ruler who wants her alive for reasons that chill her blood. Separated from her friends, guarded by half-lifes, and imprisoned in a fortress where psydrones harvest flesh, Bex learns the Book of Facets, the Lesitha Crystal, and the Orb of Arbrovivum are far from mere curiosities. They're weapons and she may be the key.

As she learns the truth of her ancestry and feels the rising power that courses through her veins, she must decide to seize the power to save her friends and risk becoming the very thing the Eth'hedrial wants or sacrifice her freedom and watch worlds fall to Urbo'Krk's jugger'naut army. As old loyalties splinter and conspiracies surface in the Facet World's dark corridors, Bex will discover the ugliest truth of all?that being 'different' may mean she is everyone's last hope.