Following a momentous journey across space, two groups of Helvenans are locked in a struggle for survival on the strange, virgin planet they have named Kelanni.

Their long journey over, the exiles from the planet Helvena must now carve out a new existence. But the stain of war still blights the two factions - the hubbers with their strict caste system, now enforced by the new, fearsome keltar in their flying cloaks, and the free community of rimmers. On an alien world beset by unknown dangers and complex life forms, they must find a way to come together...or be destroyed!

The first Lodestone trilogy saw Keris of the Kelanni join a ragtag band to combat the "alien" invasion of her world.

Five turns of the season have now passed. Keris receives a disturbing report of the theft of an ancient artifact. The perpetrator? Alexander McCann, the last human left on Kelanni!

When she tracks him down in a liquor den, the drunken McCann spins a fantastical tale. An ancient sphere recording claims that her people, the Kelanni, are alien invaders just as the humans were. Worse yet it tells of Ash, an all-powerful alien being who almost destroyed her world in the distant past.

Now sinister forces are plotting his return.

Accompanied by McCann, Keris must travel to the ancient ruined city of Gal Mador, uncover the truth of her people's dark past, and find a way to defeat an invincible alien foe....