​​​​​​​It has been nearly two thousand years since the Death–whatever it may have been, for no records have survived of those days–and the slow passage of the centuries has long since swept the ancient world away, leaving little evidence of its passing.

In Island—the first of the nascent civilizations to emerge into this brave new world—the inhabitants have flourished in their remote and undisturbed haven, enjoying the benefits of their technologically advanced, prosperous, and egalitarian society brought to them by their democratically elected government—in partnership with the mega-corporations that comprise the “Integrated State”.

However, civilization doesn’t suit everyone. It doesn’t suit the misfits, sociopaths, and fugitives from justice of the Legions: the private armies who fight “Our Corporation’s” wars in the Outlands—those places beyond the fringes of civilization, where Island’s wealth is made. Civilization doesn’t suit Captain Torny Grysdaughter: for only in the Legions can she find respite from her past, from the things that “civilization” did to her, the things that Island civilization does to anyone who doesn’t conform.

Unfortunately, civilization has other plans for Torny, not least in the shape of the Corporate executive, Mikkel Martinsson, sent from his sheltered life in Island to disturb her well-defined world; sent to her sanctuary in the barbarous Outlands to give her special orders, from The Board of Directors Themselves.

It seems that in the Outlands, “Our Corporation’s” top secret Archaeological Project has dug something up: an ancient Artefact, built by the mysterious people who lived before the Death, an Object that will change the world again, as sweepingly as the Death that followed its making.

However, before the Artefact could be returned safely to Island, it was stolen: captured during a coup d’état in one of the Outlands’ many, barbarous, nation states—and it’s going to be Torny’s job to retrieve this mysterious Relic, and return it safely to her Corporate masters.

Secrets this compromised don’t remain secret very long, and in an already dangerous world there are soon many contenders, and as many agendas; the prospect of ultimate power draws them all to the prize, and if any of them are taking any prisoners, it is only to keep them alive long enough to find out what they might know.

And, as a Trooper knows, an operation only ever goes to plan until the moment it has begun.

The Winter War is finally over; Mikkel Martinsson and Torny Grysdaughter have returned to their separate lives of before, both vanished into obscurity again and yet still bound by their terrible secret. They are gone but certainly have not been forgotten by their Corporate Masters. However, The Board of Directors of the World Overseas Corporation has more pressing concerns for the moment.

In the sophisticated world of Akureyri, the capital of an empire spanning two continents, Kristjana Lárasdaughter, banished for her mother’s crimes, returns to claim her birthright amidst the crystal towers of the mother of cities; pardoned in spite of the Board of Directors, by the Senatet, at the behest of the Premier himself.

Valdimar Magnússon, Chair of The Board, must decide what can be done about the exile’s unexpected return, and whether anything can be done at all.

Not only does the capricious heiress to the Lára billions hold the controlling shares in the World Overseas Corporation, but she holds Gunnar Eddisson, the Premier of Island’s government, in the palm of her hand as well.

As one exile returns in triumph to the center of power, another is banished to the fringes. Jaydee, “The Wolf”, “The Butcher of Labredaw”, defeated Commander in Chief in the Winter War, makes his own lonely journey into exile in the West. However, events in the rapidly changing world at the periphery of the empire will soon sweep him back to the fore, whether he wishes the fore or not.

Beyond the new Corporate Dominions on the Western Continent, a new power is rising in the endless forests of the Kebica. The Wolves are gathering, and choosing new leaders from amongst exiles of their own. They seek the Imperator, Lord of All, who will lead the Wolves to unite all the savage Kebica clans and lead them on a blood-soaked crusade across Labredaw, the Western Continent, then across the whole world, to finally burn it all in one gigantic sacrifice to Those Who Dwell in the Darkness.

Jaydee must decide whether he is the man he thought he was, or whether he truly is the feral Wolf that he always feared.

Jaydee and Raskmannan are prisoners of the World Overseas Corporation, and the Security Section will soon have Eydí as well—dead or alive—all three betrayed by Baptiste Mascon, for there can be only one Lord of the Wolves.

Torny is very much alive, and back home in Island, to everyone’s surprise; not least her own—but why is she here? And to what purpose?

The fates of both Gunnar Eddisson and Valdimar Magnússon are caught up inextricably in the opaque plans of the enigmatic socialite, Kristjana Lárasdaughter. Yet neither of them knows where she is now, what she is doing, or the extent of her inexorable will to return.

A time of reckoning is coming for all of them, and not all of them can survive, in “Possessing Demons”, the conclusion of The Conflict Within.

The World Overseas Corporation lies in disarray, devastated by the Great Disaster.

The Interim Board attempts to restore order in Akureyri and seeks to hold on to its vast acquisitions in the Outlands. But, in the provinces of the empire, confusion reigns.

In the Corporate Dominions of Labredaw, just who has authority in maintaining order in these most challenging of times: the Tribunes—combat auditors sent to investigate Corporate governance in the Dominion—or the Security Section? Without central direction, only the force of arms will ultimately resolve the crisis in the chain of command.

Torny Grysdaughter arrives back in Labredaw amidst full-scale civil war, Trooper against Trooper - black on black.

And beyond the chaos is the Lord of the Wolves. His assembled armies stretch as far as a Wolf’s eye can see, and their amassed banners are so numerous they blot out the sun.

The Imperator has destiny on his side, and Luck itself as his ally. However, divine endorsement is no guarantee of success, in the endless forests of the Kebica, and even Luck itself can fail, against the capricious will of Those Who Dwell in the Darkness.

The Imperator has fallen, stricken down by his enemies, long before the Imperium, on which the Sun never rises nor ever sets has spread beyond the endless forests of the Kebica. Indeed, the perfidious Sharks and the alien Illanoy have rolled back the Kebica sacred lands since his accession.

Soon a new antagonist will return from the East. The civil war in Labredaw has ended, and a resurgent, Corporate superpower is re-establishing itself in lands rightfully those of the spiritual.

Torny Grysdaughter walks alone out of the lands of the spiritless into the lands of the spirit beasts, unsuspecting that her hoped-for asylum is likely to be a doom more final than any she had feared in the lands where the World Overseas Corporation can reach.

However, “Our Corporation’s” arms are very long indeed and may reach far farther beyond the boundaries of their empire than anyone imagines.

Names both familiar and names long forgotten, will be drawn by Luck to the Imperator’s sacred domain.

It is a time of reckoning, where some dreams will be fulfilled at last—and some dreams will finally come to an end.