Shai'Khal is changing. The impenetrable mists that hug its coastline are waning for the first time in nine hundred years. From those mists, two women emerge: Ruya, the high priestess of death, and Sarka, the champion of war. They claim they come in peace but unrest follows wherever they travel. The Akhenic Temple, the backbone of Shai'Khal, calls them cultists and heretics. The high priest begs the shah's permission for an inquisition. The women request an audience.