All Thalissa wants to do is go home. To her new home, that is, where her family moved four years ago. Back then, there were reasons why she stayed behind in her childhood home of Redvale, but those reasons no longer pertain, and she's ready to go. One problem: her new home is near the kingdom capital, Alstopho, and that's almost two months' travelling away. With the trip so long and expensive, at the rate she's earning money she'll be stuck in Redvale until she's old and grey--that is, until she finds a necklace in the sand.
She sees it as a chance to earn the funds she needs, but the necklace proves to be far past priceless: hanging from that blood-gold chain hangs the gilded heart of a magician, and the star he tore from the sky.