Sonea starts her classes with the regular summer intake. Being from the slums she is not openly welcome among the other students. 
 Sonea and Rothen's characters develop more and more. Sonea did get on my nerves at times with her independence and suffer in silence mentality. She could have saved herself a lot of trouble by asking for help and no one would blame her. I have come to love Rothen and Dannyl. Rothen's son also makes an appearance and Dorrien reminded me of the Weasley brothers. We also see a lot of Lorlen and Akkarin. Regin seems to be a typical bully. 
 There is a lot of action and the plot boils in. I am sensing a Huge Red Herring, but I have to wait till the next book to find out if I am right.