In the Dusk Imperium, power is written in Star-marks etched at birth. Jaro is born markless. His father Lord Vespera orders the infant burned in the Still Zone. His mother Colin saves him at the cost of her life. Twenty years later, Jaro scavenges at the bottom, hiding the forbidden white Ember Light under an inhibitor collar. When he saves a crippled drifter, his half pendant ignites. The beggar is Colin, his mother. As his light awakens, the hunter Tamsin bows as his shadow guard. The Star-Eater Malakor possesses Daxon and drains Sarek. Vespera, the father who discarded Jaro, dies shielding him. Jaro tears Malakor from his host, judges the fallen, and lights the Bridge of Ten Thousand Stars. The markless reject rises as the new Ember King.