Many months ago, the destroyer Zafirah vanished during the same event that sent the cruise liner Ghazali crashing into the Hamura star. Now she is back, in a time when both the aftermath of the Mysticides and the death of the Emissary have shaken the horizon to its foundations. The Coriolis Council and Zenithian authority are questioned, and more and more people revolt against their oppressors. The throat of the Third Horizon is exposed, and this is when something ancient rises from the shadows.