Alira’s back from the brink of madness, though the voices still threaten her control. Terrified she’ll lose it again, she tries to evade human conflicts. Yet after she witnesses Cartel slavers kidnapping humans from her friend’s village on Bejami, she leaves her sanctuary to stop the Cartel from abducting and enslaving others.

On Danua, acting Clan Admiral Knøfa experiments on his unammi prisoner. Except the squib isn’t healing any longer, and the medics aren’t working fast enough to save her. Knøfa starts searching for another unammi—maybe a male this time, so he can create all the test subjects he wants.

Stopping the Cartel is enough to keep Alira’s hands full. She doesn’t want to fight the Clan, too. Yet, when she learns Knøfa is searching for the unammi survivors, she races to warn them. As Knøfa’s ship approaches them on Earth, the council tries to force it to leave. But Alira knows that if the humans escape, the unammi are doomed. Knøfa’s “experiments” will escalate, and other humans will follow his example. To protect her people’s secrets, she must stop that ship. Her only hope is to attempt something no Founder’s Daughter has ever done.