The Conservatory awakens, but not in the way anyone expected. The stone is singing?a discordant, fragmented song that pulls at the spiral marks of everyone who bears them. Linet descends into the black glass chamber beneath the gardens, where the Source's dreams press against the surface of reality.

She sees the Builders for what they were: not evil, but afraid. They built the Ministry to contain the Source because they could not understand it. Now the Source is waking, and it does not know the difference between friend and threat.

Thalira must confront the truth about her mother's role in the Preservationists' work.

Kae'lor struggles to hold the expedition together as the song beneath drives some members toward the Noise Cults.

The answer is not in controlling the song?it is in learning to sing with it.

But that requires a surrender none of them are ready to make.