Even in a world where people endowed with extraordinary and usually dangerous abilities are not uncommon, Katsu is feared and avoided. At the age of eight, she committed her first murder, and since then no one could defeat her in a fight: Katsa became an invincible warrior... and an executioner, a weak-willed tool in the hands of her uncle, King Randa. She longs to be freed from the Gift, which seems to bring her and those around her only pain, to atone for the suffering she has caused, and teams up with the young prince from Lionida to uncover a conspiracy and wrest her native lands from the hands of the villainous king. She has yet to find out what secret her brother in arms is hiding and how much evil a cruel person endowed with power over the human mind can commit.