700 years ago the gods altered history and changed the world to save the Anyi clan from their own wickedness. At least, that's the story the gods tell the Elders of Anyi. But gods have secrets, just as humans do. Now an ancient, two-fold menace has woken: Senanu, immortal monster Queen of Anyi, and the avlevi, a magical warrior housed in the body of a woman named Aseye. The avlevi sets out to conquer the Countless Clans, driving Aseye deep into the shadows of her own mind. The deeper she goes, the more Aseye learns about how the avlevi was made and what it will take to quell her bloodlust. Kwame, Aseye's lover, has discovered magic he never knew he had. Magic is rising all over the world, behaving in strange and unpredictable ways, and Kwame is tasked with finding out why. As his path takes him beyond the Countless to a place where magic rules, he wrestles with the burden of the past he tried to escape and the new power he wields. North of the Countless, trouble brews along the border separating the Desert Realms and the Kingdom of Setteh. The world is about to change again. But this time, the gods have little to do with it.
