Some secrets should never come to light. The truths that they would reveal could be taken and manipulated into something that they're not... something evil. One such secret was a single unspoken word that transformed Lynn Taylor's life. It tore her away from the ordinary, everyday, dullness of being a teenage girl, and threw her into the arms of a man with an impossible mission.

The five cities of man surround the Sea of Dekatos. The ancient city-states are filled with towers, stone pyramids, soaring catwalks, arching bridges and jade castles. The bronze age men and women fight, love, war and conquer against the backdrop of five massive, sprawling cities. Char, city of chariots, deploys her army in the nearby deserts. In Yang, where nightly winds blow in gusts of hot sand, they raise an army of heavily armored footmen. Bowmen of Lau Cing, with copper weapons and bronze chainmail, train to fight even during heavy desert storms. Formations of swordsmen pour from the pagoda's of Hecai while Anshi fields a legion of grim, dedicated female warriors. The city-states wage constant war until a new enemy threatens. Blue scaled aquatics rise from the sea, water streaming from their iridescent scales, and the five cities face a new and more terrible enemy.