Riding high after successfully defending his home country, Calvin is assigned as Kala's bodyguard on a diplomatic mission to Uleis, a merchant nation with whom a deal must be struck to ensure Gadvera's continued survival. But Uleis is run by a secretive cabal of powerful cultists, and when Calvin crosses them in typical Calvinian fashion, they do to him the same thing they do to all their problems: Toss him in a hole from which there is no return.