Laurel Havendale’s sixteenth birthday has opened an unyielding vault of judgment and peril when she learns that she must either join the cryptic Paradigm to save her family, or escape in exile to the outlands of the realm with nothing but the whispers of a secret. Her past has been hidden, and her future has been watched. She holds onto her precious love, Jacek, through the darkest moments of her own existence and reality, but he slips deeper under the control of the Paradigm. No one can ever learn that Laurel is not a true noble; it would mark her and her loved ones for immediate death. Laurel must leave her home in Clover Castle for the unsettled territories outside of Lockeland in order to escape the probe of the inquisitors and solve the mystery of her legacy. Is she the key to the end or the beginning of a free realm? The Green Isle cloaks the magic and secrecy of Laurel’s ancestry, and the Nordican glaciers test her resolve and resilience in a clash of faith and fate. Laurel embarks on a journey of discovery where her own loyalties are challenged, her beliefs are unhinged, and her truth is rivened. Laurel’s quest threatens the lives of those she loves as she delves deeper into the mystical forces behind the Paradigm and her very own existence.