Cover Artist: Ian Keltie

Fleeing from Sinkhole Station in the Maw and the loss of almost the entire Sith strike team, Vestara Khai refuels on Kessel and travels to Dathomir. Using the blood trail technique that Darth Caedus once used on Jaina Solo, Luke and Ben Skywalker follow her in order to learn the extent of this new Sith menace and ben communicates with the Jedi to inform them of the new Sith menace. On Dathomir, Luke and Ben learn that Vestara's ship may have crashed and so they set out to find her. A short time later, Han and Leia Solo arrive on Dathomir, and leaving Allana in the care of C-3PO and R2-D2, they set out with a guide team to help Luke and Ben, who have gone missing. On Coruscant, Chief of State Daala decides that she needs to lay charges against former Admiral Cha Niathal for not seeing what was happening with jacen and stopping him. When Niathal learns of this, she decides to commit suicide rather than be hauled out in front of the entire Galactic Alliance to be discredited for someone else's gain. At the same time, Jagged Fel is attacked by an assassin who turns out to be employed by Kuati Senator Haydnat Treen who would like to see Moff Lecersen on the Imperial throne and herself by his side. On Dathomir, Han and Leia's team find Luke and Ben in the middle of an assault by Dathomiri witches. Resolving the dispute without loss of life, they are introduced to the Raining Leaves clan who, in addition to harboring Vestara, are on their way to a summit with a male clan named Broken Columns. This summit is historical in that it's purpose is to join the two clans in an equal partnership, rather than one gender ruling the other one as it has been for generations. As the summit begins, the camps begin to come under attack by Nightsisters who don't want this joining to take place. Back at the spaceport, R2-D2 has gone missing, so Allana decides that she needs to find her friend. she sneaks off the Millennium Falcon and finds him deactivated in the workshop of Monarg the mechanic. With the help of C-3PO and a reactivated R2-D2, they escape from Monarg and and the spaceport in the Falcon calling for help from Han and Leia. Together, they decide to return to Coruscant, leaving Luke and Ben and the Dathomiri to fight off the Nightsisters. On Coruscant, Han and Leia are recruited by Daala in the hopes that they can help calm everyone down on all sides. Back on Dathomir, the clans and the Jedi retreat to a defensible hill, where they push back wave after wave of attacking rancors until they decide to work together strategically and as one clan, whereupon they are able to minimize their losses. When day comes and the Nightsisters retreat temporarily, the leaders of the two clans marry, creating one clan called Bright Sun. Finally having a chance to escape from prying eyes, Vestara and a hidden Nightsister named Halliava discover that Vestara's Sith comrades have arrived. Meeting up with the Sith, all the Nightsisters besides Halliava are forcibly taken to be trained with the Sith, but before Vestara is able to take Halliava, Luke, Ben and Dyon Stadd arrive and defeat the remaining Sith at the landing zone, taking Vestara captive. As they leave Dathomir, they are surrounded by a Sith strike force that moves to stop them from returning to the Maw.