The Node has failed, rendering humanity's battle clankers and the Aachim's constructs useless. Hordes of alien Lyrinx are swarming from the tar pits of Snizort. The fate of humanity is dependent on one wily old man, the Scrutator Xervish Flydd. But he has been condemned to die a brutish death

The winged Lyrinx are conquering Santhenar, each engagement weakening the faltering human resistance. The Aachim watch and wait - their invasion diverted in favour of a treacherous temporary alliance against the Lyrinx threat. The last hope lies with a small yet determined band of fighters, led by disgraced Scrutator Xervish Flydd, who had escaped from the ruling Council's brutal retribution. But Xervish and his supporters have now been condemned to a painful death for supposed treachery …However, two rebels are missing: Tiann - a geomancer of immense power, and arch-traitor Nish. They could make the difference between victory and certain annihilation

Two hundred years after the Forbidding was broken, Santhenar is locked in war with the lyrinx. Despite the development of battle clankers and mastery of the crystals that power them, humanity is losing. Tiaan, a lonely crystal worker in a clanker manufactory, is experimenting with crystal when she begins to have visions