In the age of the gods, Bardus and Octum waged war for dominion over the world. Bardus won, but the victory cost him everything—his power shattered, his essence divided into six pieces, each placed under the watch of the goddess Durga. Centuries later, Avin and his sister Eimelle serve the Church of Bardus in a world that has largely forgotten the conflict that shaped it. Then a man who calls himself Belias arrives and murders Avin's mentor in cold blood. The two youths pursue Belias across the world, and what they uncover along the way reaches deeper than one killing: the truth of their own origins, and their place in a conflict that began before either of them was born.