In the Valley of the Fey, contenders from every part of Talamh gather by the lake for the ritual that will decide the new Taoiseach (pronounced TEE-sha), their chieftain. The chosen one will see a legendary sword (named Cosantoir) in the water. Keegen O’Broin doesn’t want to be chieftain, but in the lake, he sees the face of a woman with red hair and gray eyes, and he sees the sword. He emerges from the lake and kneels before Mairghread, a former Taoiseach and mother of the chieftain Keegan is replacing. He vows to live for Talamh and stand for the light.

In present-day Philadelphia, riding the bus home from her job teaching middle schoolers, Breen O’Kelly sees a man with silver hair and feels the strange call to come home. She stops to check on the house of her mother, Jennifer Wilcox, a media director for a major advertising firm. Her mother is successful and well-manicured while 26-year-old Breen feels frazzled, anxious, and unhappy. Her best memories are of when she was young, before her father left.

In her mother’s office, a sudden breeze swirls papers from a desk drawer. Breen discovers an investment account in her name that holds nearly $4 million—money sent to her by her father, which her mother never told her about and has kept from Breen all this time.