Vail encourages humans to learn the many ways magic can be used. But being a muse unused to humans she soon learns how having great powers can corrupt those who wield it. When the first attempt results in the destruction of the island her magicians live on, Vail begins to understand she needs to try to be more patient when she starts over. Years later and miles away from the sunken island, a sailor returns home just in time for his dying mother to ask him to tell an unknown aristocrat of her passing away. Trying to fulfill her dying wish he starts off on an adventure that changes not just his life, but the lives of most anyone he encounters.