Emerging from the collapse of the Great Mound Centers and the crumbling of old alliances, The People of One Fire craft a new confederacy beneath the encroaching shadows of the British, Spanish, and French empires. For thousands of years, the Keepers of the Adjik Hata have preserved the White Path of the covenant with Ofvngv. In this turbulent time of conflict and change, the Spanish attempt to forcibly convert the Adjik Hata. Mvhvlv, the last Keeper, dispatches his tvbalv, Little Bird, with a secret message to Emperor Brim and entrusts to his niece, Morning Light, a strand of medicine beads containing the ancient lore of the Adjik Hata. As her uncle perishes, Morning Light flees the ruin of a burning chapel with the beads to seek out Hiram at Ocmulgee. But war is brewing, so Hiram sends Morning Light to the unlikely haven of Charleston. As Morning Light struggles to adapt to the strange, new ways of the whites, Little Bird is drawn into the brutal Apalachee raids by his desire for vengeance and the machinations of Emperor Brim. During the war, Little Bird discovers a dark sorcerer and a Fallen Hiyaulgee instigated the destruction of the Adjik Hata to seize the beads, annihilate The People of One Fire, and usher in an age of darkness and corruption unseen since the Adjik Hata shut the way between the worlds. In the shattering aftermath of battle, Little Bird is directed to Ocmulgee. Meanwhile, Morning Light, troubled by dreams of tragedy for her adoptive family and destruction of the beads, is also urged back to Ocmulgee. Will they uncover the answers they desperately seek – or a destiny more wondrous and perilous than any they could envision?