The corsair's life is simple, right? Hunt pirates, get paid. But nothing's ever simple where magic, and empires, are concerned. Captain Ellie Nivkah had settled back into a corsair's life. It'd been a year since she met the noble mage Payra Margha and was drawn into the hunt for her brother's skyraker Jormungaat, and Ellie stood by her choice to take her reward and leave. But vast conspiracies don't just let one go. Drawn in by secrets from her youth, Ellie accepts a poor contract in the remote islands of the Great Reef. She expected the trap, but she did not expect to once again cross paths with Payra, nor to find a forgotten history Ellie had once sworn to protect. The rebels behind the Jormungaat are far from defeated, and only Ellie, Payra, and the crew of the Asgert stand between them and the rediscovery of an ancient magic that could destroy the empire, and the world along with it.