After Nira and other human breeding subjects revolted on Dobro and overthrew Designate Udru'h, Nira was finally returned lo Ildira, leaving the splinter colony with Jora'h's son Daro'h. Back in the Prism Palace, Nira met the historian and scholar Anton Colicos (son of Margaret Colicos) and a group of Hansa cloud harvesters led by Sullivan Gold. Sullivan's people, including the engineer Tahitha Huck and the forlorn green priest Kolker, had rescued many Ildirans after a hydrogue attack, but the Mage-Imperator had not let them leave for fear they would report his secret agreement with the hydrogues.

Jora'h did not accept the treachery easily, though. He secretly called his greatest experts to devise a way to fight back, also enlisting the reluctant aid of his human captives. Sullivan and Tabitha, though resenting their situation, worked to improve the Solar Navy.

Nira, meanwhile, was finally able to communicate with other green priests and explain what had happened to her in the breeding camps. Kolker, also cut off from the worldforest, had formed a friendship with the old lens kithman Tery'l, who explained how all Ildirans are linked through . Later, even after he reconnected with other green priests, Kolker felt that something important was missing. On his deathbed, old Tery'l gave Kolker a prismatic medallion and told him to continue his quest for enlightenment.

To enforce their ultimatum, the hydrogues sent diamond warglobes to stand sentinel over various Ildiran planets, ready to attack should Jora'h betray them. A cluster of hydrogue warglobes arrived at Hyrillka, the recent site of a ruinous civil war. Hyrillka was being rebuilt by the new Designate Ridek'h, a young and unprepared boy, mentored by the one-eyed veteran Tal O'nh. The threatening hydrogues, however, were unexpectedly destroyed by a force of fiery elemental beings, the faeros.

The ever-spreading war ignited a hydrogue-faeros conflict, and the faeros were systematically being attacked in their own suns. After destroying the warglobes at Hyrillka, a huge clash took place in Hyrillka's primary sun. When the star itself began to die, Designate Ridek'h and Tal O'nh knew that the planet was doomed. They launched a full-scale evacuation. But after most of the people were gone, the faeros abruptly changed their tactics and rallied from inside their star and overwhelmed the hydrogues. Faeros began to appear at a great many systems, battling hydrogues.

The Roamers - led by Cesca Peroni - launched an all-out offensive, unleashing the water elementals against the hydrogues by dropping tankloads of wental water into gas giants. Battles raged in the cloudy depths, and the wentals eradicated warglobe after warglobe. Through Robb's father Conrad Brindle, Jess Tamblyn had learned that his sister Tasia was being held captive by the hydrogues. Jess fought the hydrogues, rescued Tasia, Robb, and the other prisoners, then raced away with the warglobes and Klikiss robots in hot pursuit. When Jess finally reached the edge of the atmosphere, several enormous verdani treeships and Conrad Brindle were there to assist them. They escaped.