Brune, a seventeen-year-old fisherman living in an ethnic labor camp called a pod, receives memories from inanimate objects. When he is touched by the Light and his dangerous power is revealed, he is forced to flee for his life, pursued by the Pod Authorities and the Shaetán, faceless Shadows that seek to claim him. Now, he must confront the competing powers within him and face the dark truth that he may be the very thing he hates and fears—the thing he must destroy.

Kell Crawford faces the rise of a new cult that worships the skeletons of the priests he was forced to kill when he cleansed the Temple of Light. Rebellion sweeps the land, and Kell is attacked by faceless Shadows trying to cut him off from the Light, the source of his power. When rebels descend on the City of Light, he races to save the city and the new Chosen Ones Illurien has sent before they are lost to the Shadows and the fabric of space and time is torn asunder.