When John opens a letter addressed to his missing roommate, Kyle, he expects to find a house key, but instead he is swept into a strange realm of magic, mysticism, revolutionaries and assassins. Though he struggles to escape, John is drawn steadily closer to a fate he share with Kyle—to wake the destroyer god, the Rifter, and shatter a world.

Having escaped a brutal battle between Fai'daum revolutionaries and Guan'im cavalry, John has climbed the Thousand Steps to the heights of Rathal'pesha in search of a way home. He learns that the golden key he lost--the one that can open a Great Gate and allow him and his friends to return home--lies within his reach.

But not even the remote mountain monastery of Rathal'pesha is safe from violent turmoil in an age of rebellion and religious warfare. Soon John is drawn into the heart of a power struggle that will decide who will live and who will die on the Holy Road.