Katrine of Banur yearns to leave the small farming community where she has grown up and travel to Pardish, home of the illustrious Recorder's School. There she would study everything about Kareand and its four races, and at the same time develop her artistic talents, so that eventually she could become one of the Regent's elite historian-couriers.

Not long after she discovers a spire, a magical weapon created centuries earlier by the sorcerer Kylet, she thinks her dream is about to come true. She unexpectedly finds herself on a journey to Pardish in the company of a Master Recorder, his apprentice, her most despised cousin, and a legendary Warrior.

But before she reaches her destination, she will face death three times over, redefining her understanding of the world and her place in it.