Fifteen years after Katya Trelan led the rebellious Southshires in a doomed secession from the Tressian Republic, her son, Josiri Trelan, prepared to finish what she began and free his people from the Council’s oppressive rule. His sister, Calenne Trelan, wanting nothing more to do with the Trelan name, sought escape from the family legacy through arranged marriage to the bold knight Kasamor Kiradin. Upon learning the neighbouring Hadari Empire sought to invade the Southshires, Viktor Akadra – the Council Champion, architect of Katya Trelan’s downfall, and bearer of a forbidden magical shadow – resolved to atone for past deeds by rallying the Southshires’ defenders against the Hadari.
Things started to go wrong almost at once. Unbeknownst to Josiri, the wolf’s-head outlaws he’d laboured to bring together colluded with the Hadari. Viktor met political opposition on the Council, led by the scheming matriarch Ebigail Kiradin. Kasamor was killed on route to his wedding, and Calenne struck out into the world alone – a journey for which she was wholly unprepared.
Viktor gained leverage on the Council by threatening to reveal the existence of his shadow, convincing his father to support the Southshires’ defence. He arrived in the Southshires just in time to save Calenne from ne’er-do-wells, and through her gained introduction to Josiri.
Unable to bear the thought of working with the man who destroyed his mother, Josiri refused to cooperate with Viktor, but soon discovered ‘his’ wolf’s-heads’ treachery. Despite Viktor’s efforts at reconciliation, Josiri fell into drunken despair, refusing to have anything to do with repelling the Hadari. However, Calenne – whose own fear of Viktor was steadily turning to admiration and affection – offered to act as the rallying figurehead Josiri would not, in exchange for Viktor marrying her and freeing her of the Trelan name.
One by one, Josiri’s remaining allies joined Viktor’s outnumbered army and met the Hadari in unequal battle at Davenwood. Despite early successes, the tide turned against the Tressians. Fearing for Calenne’s safety, Josiri shook off his despondency and seized control of the wolf’s-heads, bringing them into the fray against the Hadari. At the same time, a desperate Viktor drew upon the full power of his shadow – and quiescent magic buried in the Southshires – to blind swathes of the Hadari. The Tressians triumphed, but at huge cost. Many lay dead, and Calenne was missing in the aftermath, having last been seen leading a charge to save her routed countryfolk.
Both of them distraught at Calenne’s disappearance, Viktor and Josiri resolved to begin anew. Their pact was almost immediately shaken when soldiers acting under Ebigail Kiradin’s orders restored martial law to the Southshires. In retaliation, Josiri freed the Hadari prisoners, including the crown prince Kai Saran and his daughter Melanna Saranal. He was sheltered from the consequences only because Viktor adopted him into the Akadra family. Both were forced to return north to Tressia, leaving Calenne’s fate a mystery.
Worse, upon arriving in Tressia, it became apparent that Ebigail’s political machinations afflicted more than the Southshires. Having reduced the Council almost to nothing through assassination, she framed Viktor for practising witchcraft and set about seizing control of the city – and the Republic – by force.
Despite wanting nothing more than to return to the Southshires and find Calenne, Josiri found himself drawn into the fight. Eventually, Viktor’s allies overthrew and killed Ebigail, only to receive warning that the Southshires were sliding into disaster.
Malatriant, once the Tyrant Queen of the old Tressian kingdom and dead for centuries, had been manipulating the folk of the Southshires across the course of years, urging them to revolt and thus empower her return. The south’s new wave of oppression had given her precisely that. An entire town was now under her control, and her abhorrent rule was spreading. Those who fell to Malatriant’s influence became part of her, an army of puppets unable to break free of her control.
When news of this reached Tressia, Josiri determined to free his people. Viktor and his allies on the Council immediately threw their support behind him, despatching an army to confront and destroy Malatriant … if such a thing could be done.
Desperate to find Calenne, Viktor left Tressia ahead of the gathering army, and arrived in a Southshires drowning in primordial darkness. Assailed by Malatriant’s thralls, he was rescued by Calenne and resolved to confront the Tyrant Queen face to face.
Alas, that confrontation went poorly. Viktor’s shadow was revealed as an aspect of Malatriant’s all-consuming Dark, and he was swiftly overpowered. She revealed that it was he who’d set her free by drawing on the magic of her prison during his triumph at Davenwood. But far from wanting him dead and the world under her thrall, Malatriant claimed she wanted nothing more than to bequeath what remained of her power to Viktor – to have him become her heir.
Seeing no other way to stop Malatriant, Viktor agreed to become her heir. At the last moment, when all seemed lost, the Tressian army arrived and Josiri’s selfless sacrifice brought Viktor back to his senses. Casting off Malatriant’s influence, Viktor ordered everything that had fallen under her sway – towns, villages and people – burned to ash, ending her threat for good.
In the aftermath, Viktor confessed to Josiri that Calenne too was under Malatriant’s control and had died in the fires. Heartbroken, Josiri parted ways with Viktor, their nascent friendship shattered by betrayal. Unable to bear what had been made of his ancestral home, Josiri headed north to Tressia, to take his mother’s restored seat on the Council. Viktor, determined to keep watch in case any fragment of Malatriant returned, set off into the wilds, deep in conversation with a Calenne that only he could see …