Royce Eldridge was a simple blacksmith. He and his wife had never been lucky enough to have children of their own, so when he discovered an orphaned baby on the side of the road after a trip to market, he and his wife were glad to open their arms and hearts, but they knew there was more to the child's story. Sworn to keep a terrible secret, they raised the child, named Mordecai as their own, never telling him the full truth about how he was orphaned, or who his parents were. As a young man, Mordecai began to develop in extraordinary ways, leading him to questions that couldn't be answered by the simple story he had been given. In the course of seeking the truth, he will find love and treachery as events conspire to draw him into a battle for the future that he never expected. Beset on all sides by enemies and allies trying to control or destroy his future, he must make choices that will damn some and save others. Will the world be worth saving if it costs him the very reasons he has for living in it?