It's a time of turmoil in the Central Allied Worlds when the governor of Rensler, his wife and eldest son are forced to attend a "conference" of colonial governors. They leave the youngest son, Edrian, and the colony in the care of his grandfather, the former governor. The two begin a secret project by befriending the sentient, nocturnal Nightskimmers. As Edrian grows up, and unrest intensifies, he learns real heroes sometimes operate in secret. His position as youngest brother of the next governor requires him to present a false face to the world against the day when he must strike out on behalf of the colonists if they're to keep their freedom. When the expected revolution does erupt, Edrian's father and grandfather are taken away, accused of treachery. His older brother flees to the wilderness to lead the rebels, and Edrian and his mother become hostages. Edrian hides behind his false reputation of being sickly and studious, allowing him to move freely at night, freeing prisoners and striking in defense of the colony. Only a boy on the verge of manhood, yet the Talon's reputation has already taken root...

Before the Commonwealth existed, there was an expanding, multi-galaxy civilization, that disintegrated. This is the story of its downfall, where colony worlds learned to survive by their own strength...or were abandoned to die. Three novellas in one volume explore the birth of the Khybors, whose descendants will impact the Downfall, the rebirth of civilization, the return to the stars, and the Commonwealth far into the future. Khrystalis: Kerin was the youngest child of two powerful, intelligent, gifted research scientists. When the military interfered yet again in her father's research, the resulting lab explosion filled Kerin's body with experimental bio-crystal, long before it was ready for human testing. She was changed. Bio-crystal was meant to aid the body in repairing itself, when medical science was incapable. As it penetrated down to the genetic level, Kerin learned to change herself, and to sense the world in totally new ways. When her gift reached out beyond her own biology, she stood poised between being the bearer of a great gift for humanity, or a threat that would change the universe. Ambush: The twins, Casta and Pol, should never have been born, and there were many enemies who would still try to destroy them as they reached adulthood. Hidden away on a remote colony world with their uncle, they were allowed to explore all their potential, develop all the gifts they could imagine. That potential was put to good use when their home was attacked and their uncle was kidnapped by enemies intent on destroying first their world, then civilization. Their favorite game was called Ambush, and now the game had become reality. The enemy would never know what hit them. When the smoke had cleared, they had regained more than their uncle. Now what they were had a name: Khybors. Wing and Claw: Lor and Jae led the Khybors, training them to be the frontrunners of exploration teams clearing alien worlds for colonization. They had learned young not to trust the powers-that-be when they spoke of peace and cooperation between the emerging groups of augmented Humans and the rest of the Human race. All the signs were there, that the enemies who had been quiet, hiding in the shadows for generations now, were ready to emerge and attack once again. The time had come to reach for the stars, for Khybors to flee to the furthest limits of explored and colonized space, and find a world where they could live in peace and safety. First, they had to rescue the people who dared to stand up for them and speak on their behalf, before their voices were silenced permanently.

Lorien vows to do whatever it takes to serve Reshor and protect her pregnant sister, Andrixine, the Sword Bearer...even if it means making a loveless political marriage. The game of politics and courtly manners turns out to be a far harsher duty than swordplay and battle. Ambassador Lord Arand of Eretia comes to Reshor to make politically astute marriages to protect his kingdom against Sendorland. He's been ordered to win Lorien for his queen's grandson. Arand and Lorien discover they have much in common and their resolve to put duty ahead of their own dreams soon becomes a torment. Arand has a gift for healing and music but has denied both for the sake of following family tradition and serving the throne as an ambassador. When enemies inside Reshor conspire with Sendorland to steal first Lorien's brothers and then Andrixine's newborn sons, Lorien and Arand find themselves in the middle of danger but in exactly the right place to avert total disaster. Their own misery makes them wonder if all their sacrifices mean anything. Doesn't Yomnian want his servants to be happy?

Khyber is Istorica for the exiles, the one entrusted with remembering all their history, everything they've learned. Despite the support of her grandmother, Dayree, Khyber feels she's let down her family by not being able to step between worlds and take the exiles home. She has many gifts, but her talent for telling stories becomes the most important, when it offers the exiles a chance to reach out and find other exiles from Rehdonna. However, enemies have followed the exiles to Earth, and the only way to protect her family and village is to live separated from them under a false name. For the sake of the exiles, Khyber will do whatever it takes...and in the process find her way home.

Elin, a direct descendant of the first Khybor, holds the future of her race on her shoulders. When the Set'ri want to declare them non-Humans and have them exterminated, and other factions in civilization want them as slaves, Elin leads the way to a desert world called Norbra, where Khybors have a chance to live free and to raise their children in peace and safety. But their enemies have followed them...

K'reeth and her sister, K'rin, were named for the moonbirds--sister raptor birds who share parenting duties, one the nurturer, the other the hunter and defender. Orphaned by catastrophe and adopted by the High Mistrada of the T'bredi scholars, they're teachers entrusted with all the gathered wisdom of the Ayanlak. Their bond of sisterhood is tested when K'reeth falls in love with the Wind Walker Talon. The relationship is further strained when the new peace with the Colonist invaders includes a promise to send home all the children who have been rescued by and raised among the Ayanlak--and K'reeth is the first. Her forced journey to be reunited with a family she doesn't even remember eventually takes both sisters across the continent and into the nest of political intrigue and contention that may tear their world apart--on the very brink of peace and the fulfillment of ancient prophecy.

Rescuing K'reeth from her kidnappers brought an epic storm down on their enemies, but common sense said the Dominators were far from defeated. Taron and K'reeth had dreamed of a world where Ayanlak and Na'huma colonists could live together in peace and acceptance. Now that she was pregnant, they needed to make that world a reality, and soon, or their child of two races might never be born. Admiral Dorwen had a dream of a peace village, where both groups of galactic refugees could learn from each other and learn to share their world, which the Ayanlak had named Storm Shelter and the Na'huma colonists had named Refuge. As fall turned to winter, volunteers gathered and shared ideas, and traveled to the T'bredi enclave, where they would be safe from their enemies, to prepare to start building in the spring. Touching while meeting together in the Dream Plain had always been forbidden, and the storm created when Taron rescued K'reeth illustrated exactly why. But that discovery sparked curiosity, and K'rin and other scholars delved into the archives to learn more about the Dream Plain, who had learned how to use it, and what else they could do in the realm of the mind. If people could travel wide distances through the Dream Plain--granted, with devastating consequences--what else could travel through it? The discovery of ancient treasures stored in the Dream Plain, unchanged by the centuries, opened doors of speculation and possibilities, and a chance to delve the secrets of the ancestors.

The colony world of Rensler remains under occupation by enemy forces. Erion Rensler, governor, and his father, Elbarto, the former governor, are still prisoners, their location unknown. All that stands between the invaders and success are the Rensler brothers, Eryk and Edrian. Eryk leads the resistance fighters in the forests of Rensler. Edrian stays under the watchful eye of the enemy, playing a dangerous game of deception. At night, he sheds his pretense of being a sickly book-head and becomes the Talon, defender of the colony, riding on a deadly Nightskimmer...

Refugees from the Downfall Wars, separated by centuries of spaceflight, clash on a far distant world. Caught between them are Tayree--native, Wind Walker, visionary, and a recent widow--and Arin, a foundling raised by the invading Colonists. Tayree's visions send her to find Arin, stolen from her tribe when he was an infant. She knows him from childhood dreams...and because his twin brother murdered her husband and infant sons in an attempt to possess her. Arin and Tayree could be part of prophecy to bring peace between the Ayanlak natives and the invading Colonists, but only if their hearts can heal. Tayree has a chance to fill her empty arms, but claiming her rights of recompense from her enemy's family could destroy the future for her tribe and Arin's love for her.

On a remote colony world, the daughter of the Talon, the defender of the people, takes over her father's mask and identity. At the same time, an investigator comes to the colony in search of the Set'ri, to stop them from hastening the disintegration of the galactic civilization. Can the two work together for the sake of the future, or will their necessary deceptions push them apart forever?