The great empire has slipped into the abyss of a war of all against all. The essences of the primordial world turned human lands into a bloody arena. The white flame monks are too busy to confront them as they hunt down heretics. The imperial legions are using their last strength to hold back the rebels. The last connecting thread between the dying provinces is reliably protected caravans...Laen Thark is one of the best secret blades of the dying empire. But his enemies cannot know about this: the former executor of His Majesty’s sentences hides this part of his past. Which he doesn’t regret, because he lost his memory. He does not follow the oath of duty, for his clan is called to the scaffold. He does not honor the white flame, because someone else’s voice constantly interferes with his thoughts... Now Laen has found himself as the head of the sentinels of a caravan that follows from one human enclave to another through the contaminated lands, where the essences of the primordial world are waging a bloody war...