Alere Connor may have just started the first war in Kalima's 700 year history. As a failed xintou-telepath but skilled swordswoman, Alere wants only to be freed from duty to Xintou House. Instead, she finds herself the pawn of politics when she is sent to act as mistress to the ruling Jun First, Radan Zah-Hill. Kalima, an Earth-colony world with little iron ore and no fossil fuels, is entrenched in a peaceful feudal society ruled by the...