Mags had been working in the Pieters’ mine, slaving in the dark, cold seams, seeking for sparklies, for as long as he could remember. The kids who worked well the mine were orphans, kids who had been abandoned, who had lost their parents, or had been generally undesirable. But Mags was different. Mags was “Poor Blood,” because his parents were bandits who had been killed in a raid by the Royal Safeguard. “Bad Blood” because he’d been found in a cradle in the bandits’camp. Blood so bad that nobody had needed about Foundation to take him in except Cole Pieters. When he was big plenty of to see on the sides from the sluices he had gone to just work at the mine. Mags understood nothing of the world beyond the mine, and was unaware of how uncommon his paltry living was. Then some strangers on large white horses pressured their way past the Pieters family and transported him apart to Haven to become a Herald Trainee. Abruptly depends upon exposed for him. He was warm and well fed for the first time in his existence, and he had Dallen, his Companion, who seemed more miraculous than an angel. But the world of the Collegium was not all heavenly. There is politics upheaval in Valdemar’s capital, for the courtroom had been infiltrated by international “diplomats,” who seemed to be interested in seeding discontent than in actual diplomacy…and Mags seemed to be the only one who’d noticed…