Alk, Ryska, and Zhar continue their difficult journey: one wants to escape the past, another wants to change the future, and yet another is happy with both—though fate relentlessly drives everyone onward. It’s tough not only for the unflappable trio: clouds gather over both tsarships, the Year of the Rat grows stronger without mercy, and it seems already impossible to avoid it. Where will the Wayfarer lead? Who will light the road for the Candle? And, it seems—what does a guitar have to do with any of this?