Part one—KazaKu is persuaded by Shalana, the closest thing she has to a friend, to climb onto the roof of the monastery next door in order to spy on Prince Beatrus, who has been sent there for relief from the burden of ruling as a possible respite from the nameless sorrow that had plagued him for years. From her hiding place, she discovers his secret talent and combination of ability and sadness inexplicably drives her to take ever greater risks to learn more about him.
KazaKu is a boarder at the local sanctum for the arcanely gifted, possessing the battle gift which endows her with more than human strength and dexterity and a powerful resistance to fatigue and injury. Unfortunately, even if the side effect of this type of gift was an extremely violent temper, her options would be limited. Those with the battle gift make fine warriors but are good for little else and, since in her society women can not be warriors, she is left in a decidedly uncomfortable position. But she has not chaffed overmuch regarding lack of social prospects, present and future, unable to imagine an alternative, until a chain of events takes her life in a radically different direction.
