Laes has fought for everything in her life: from the political intrigues of her father's court to the rebellion she led to unseat him. When she won the throne, she fell prey to the same paranoias that drove her father. In the end, when the people of Theralis finally overthrew her, they called her the Empress of Death.

She escaped to the opposite end of the world to hide on the frozen shores of Istan. Mired in despair and regret, she forgot that the soul-binding magics of her bloody rule would lead her enemies back to her.

In the short story "The Puzzle Box," Laes must decide whether she has lost the will to survive.