After waking from a three-day unconsciousness, Lady Valerie learns her parents, Lord and Lady Grey, were brutally killed and displayed on the city wall. Her three years of defending King Edmund's borders were met with betrayal: her family was slaughtered, their souls trapped by the Temple, and her own army has been commandeered by the king and Archbishop Malwen. Rejecting aid, Valerie declares she alone will settle the blood debt and orders her remaining loyal forces to march south toward the capital for vengeance.