Naia dreams of becoming a Jaihar Blademaster, but after assaulting a teacher, her future seems ruined. The timely intervention of a powerful stranger abruptly elevates her into elite Upper Grounds training. She’s no idea that the stranger is Dal Gassan, head from the Daljeer Group. Seventeen years ago he observed the massacre of Challimar’s court and rescued its single survivor, an infant girl. Gassan plans to thrust a cutter into the machinations of imperial succession: Naia. Disguised as the legendary Princess Xarimet of Challimar, Naia must challenge the imperial family and earn. Naia is definitely no princess, but with her desert-kissed eye and sword skills, she may be close enough.