Under the command of Phoenix Karlennon an expeditionary force travels to Whitton in an effort to prevent a breach of the wall between waking and dreaming worlds. Traversing a host of dream realms and struggling with confused images of their people’s past they finally confront the old dream guardian, but not in time to prevent Phoenix’s decline into madness. As the divide collapses the Harts make a desperate stand in defence of a ritual to pass the mantle of dream guardian to Phoenix’s oldest friend Goran Heartcleaver. Goran takes up the burden and slays both his friend and the corrupted guardian, but he too is lost to Albion as he is drawn inexorably back into the dreaming.