Five years after the Manfred riots, the question of machine intelligence is still a dangerous one on Persephone, and the coolie rights organization Realpeace is not prepared to let it go. For conjurer Celinde Fortune and her musician cousin Fanning Jones, the conflict is a distant one -- until the murder of a popular musician raises the stakes even for the most determinedly uninvolved. And when Fortune acquires a new Spelvin construct to manage her magic act --one originally owned by an FTL pilot named Reverdy Jian -- she is thrust suddenly into the middle of the problem. Because this construct is something different, and that difference can get them all killed.