Banished to the desert planet of Niobe Four after a failed assassination attempt, Queen Ophelia Droxine Oberon searches for answers that are, as yet, hidden from her in a veil of darkness, an unknown force that is relentlessly extinguishing the fires of her once-grand Imperium. Together with her trusted Aeronaut, Captain Nix Orlan, Ophelia investigates a cosmic riddle that, if not somehow halted and reversed, will take this universe to the brink of annihilation… and beyond.