On the dying world of Vaacom, one youth, Irapra, has been permitted to leave the spawnage early. He believes it is because his sire, the High Lord, values him. He is wrong. Desperate to save his kind from extinction, Irapra must find a way to convince his sire that he is right about the shadow fractures being a passage to other worlds. At odds with the diminished culture of his once-proud warrior race, Irapra embraces his hubris and refuses to surrender his ambition. But in pushing the High Lord, Irapra will either save Vaacom or face the ultimate betrayal.