Cyril Laverre, former Grand-Mage of the High Court of Farsala, has spent the last decade hiding himself away in a ramshackle hut by the sea. He spends his days catching fish for his cat familiar, Shoestring, and suppressing his guilt over the kingdom's ruin. 

After finding Shoestring dead one morning, a desperate Cyril casts a powerful spell that catapults him back in time to a happier period of Farsalan history – a time when Tigris Margrave was destined to ascend to the throne and Cyril’s tentative romance with Tigris’ brother, Eufrates, had not yet bloomed.

Armed with the knowledge of Tigris’ sudden and tragic death and Eufrates’ subsequent descent into madness, Cyril is adamant to keep Eufrates from ascending to the throne and setting in motion the kingdom’s downfall.

But the magical oath he made to Eufrates at the altar, transcending both time and space, may prove to be his most enduring – and most dangerous – feat of magic to date…