In a clandestine meeting on earth, Van learns a critical bit of family history when he meets his secret benefactor.

From the halls of power in Washington to the vastness of space, the Guild moves closer to outright war as shifting alliances force everyone—including Van—to pick a side, take up arms, and fight.

But there are ghosts our there in the black, and some of them carry secrets that Mark Tudor and Petyr Groshenko refused to reveal. In the expanse of his memory, Perry finds an ancient ship, and an even older war—and neither of those things have truly gone away.

Faced with power and responsibility unlike anything he can imagine, Van Tudor is about to learn a fact that few people have ever known--

The universe looks different when you’re wearing a Master’s badge. And those who don’t have one just might want you dead.