Hiraeth (welsh.) - a homesickness for a home to which you cannot return, a home which maybe never was; the nostalgia, the yearning, the grief for the lost places of your past. Rona hasn't seen her twin brother in fifteen years. Lord Araphus - her benefactor and tormentor - has conscripted her into the Garrison to prevent her from returning home to her family, to keep her trapped in the city of Sulos. She spies for him. She kills for him. And she hides her power from him. But he watches, waiting for the slightest hint at the power he suspects she possesses, and thrusts her into dangerous situations in the hopes of forcing her to reveal it. Kaleii - an Ingrothan conscript from the east - is determined to avenge his father, who was murdered before his eyes. All he has to go off to identify the assassin is the uniform of a Garrison soldier, and the pommel of a sword carved into the shape of a crow's head. When a stranger comes to him with knowledge of such a soldier in Sulos, his path is set. He joins the Garrison but the last thing he expected was to find a kindred spirit - someone with closer ties to him than he realised at first, and who might just get in the way of his quest for revenge.