Ferius Parfax is at long last ready to begin her life as an Argosi, a wandering philosopher and righter of wrongs. But she has debts to pay, and while breaking out a notorious thief from prison, she encounters one of the remnant of her people, the Mahdek.

Chedran leads a group of young Mahdek who are determined to fight for a future for their people, free from persecution by Jan'Tep mages. Having repaid her debt to the thief Arissa, who had befriended her many years before, Ferius must now decide what debt she owes the society into which she was born. Meanwhile, she finds her feelings towards Arissa becoming more complicated.