"Have we really come so far, when a tour of the Continent is so desirable a thing? We've traded our swords for treaties, our daggers for promises - but our thirst for violence has never been quelled. And
that's the crux of it: it can't be quelled. It's human nature."
For her sixteenth birthday, Vaela Sun receives the most coveted gift in all the Spire - a trip to the Continent. It seems an unlikely destination
for a holiday: a cold, desolate land where two "uncivilized" nations
remain perpetually at war. Most citizens tour the Continent to see the
spectacle and violence of war, a thing long banished in the Spire. For
Vaela - a smart and talented apprentice cartographer - it is an
opportunity to improve upon the maps she's drawn of this vast, frozen
land.
But an idyllic aerial exploration is not to be had: the
realities of war are made clear in a bloody battle seen from the
heli-plane during the tour, leaving Vaela forever changed. When a tragic accident leaves her stranded on the Continent, she has no illusions
about the true nature of the danger she faces. Starving, alone and lost
in the middle of a war zone, Vaela must try to find a way home - but
first, she must survive.
