Cover Artist: Dave Stevenson

Wardmaster Quarra Thayn has come to Point Defiance, the southwesternmost point of the Alanciar continent on Kesh, to meet Jogan Halder. She feels unfulfilled at home, and is meeting Jogan behind her husband's back. On her way to meet him, she witnesses first-hand the preparations her people have been making ever since Adari Vaal, the Herald, first landed on their shores nearly 2,000 years before and warned them of the coming of the Sith. While Jogan shows her around the watchtower, a trio of airships descend from the clouds to the west, and the Keshiri do what they have been training for, and shoot them down. During the fighting, Quarra sends a warning inland through the Force and flees the watchtower in the fear that someone will find out that she is meeting with someone with the intent of having an affair. As she and Jogan are making their way to where she can leave, the last airship is finally brought down, and one of the uvaks used by the Sith crashes to the ground, on top of Jogan. As Quarra tries to keep Jogan alive and extricate him, she is accosted by Sith High Lord Edell Vrai and his gathered survivors, and taken prisoner. The Sith capture a sailing ship, and Edell convinces Quarra that she needs to take him to the capital or he will kill Jogan. As they travel in disguise, he witnesses a celebration of the arrival of Adari Vaal to Alanciar, where the Sith are caricaturized and easily defeated, boosting morale. Shortly afterwards, the Sith invasion fleet led by Korsin Bentado arrives and the fight begins in earnest. Quarra convinces Edell to take a brief side trip to her home town so she can make sure her children are safe, and then they continue to Sus'mintri. Arriving at the capital, they are immediately sent into the command center, where they find that Bentado and his Sith have killed all the Keshiri leaders and are running everything from inside without the knowledge of the local Keshiri. Realizing that this method of control will never work since Bentado is determined to raise a fighting force and overthrow the Grand Lord, Edell and Quarra attack and then hide in a secret chamber until Edell overcomes the wounds that were inflicted on him. Shortly afterwards, Another airship approaches Alanciar and Bentado orders it destroyed. Edell and Quarra drop down and engage Bentado's Sith. After a brief fight, Bentado defeats Edell and is about to kill him when he is informed that the airship has landed and it is Grand Lord Hilts aboard. He orders everyone killed, and his own Keshiri slave, Squab, kills him and tells Edell that the Hilts family has a better greeting for him. Shortly afterwards, Hilts' airship arrives in Sus'mintri and Jogan explains how he was taken over the ocean and saw that the Sith were nothing like what Adari warned them against, and agreed to help them reach peace with the Keshiri of Alanciar. Hilts explains to Edell that it was easy to dupe Jogan with tales of the Destructors and Protectors, and that it was good to give Alanciar a war since they had been preparing for one for nearly 2,000 years. With the process of converting Alanciar to the Sith cause begun, Edell is appointed governor over the new continent. They begin constructing boats instead of airships and dismantling the Keshiri weapons. Offered the chance to stand beside Edell and lead the people, Quarra chooses instead to go home to her family and be with them while everyone around is converted to the lies of the Sith. Poised to explore the unknown areas of Kesh, it is a new age for the Lost Tribe and the Keshiri, now united in one purpose.