The final volume of this lusciously scenic quest for the past, which blends exoticism with dogmatic bureaucracy in a world crowded with wonders. Ten million years in the future, humans have evolved into the God-like Preservers and have fled the Universe, but are still worshipped by those servant races they raised to intelligence and gifted the vast artificial world of Confluence. Yama, the Child of the River, has stumbled into the middle of a civil war. While the dispossessed peoples of Confluence hope that Yama may renew their world, he must discover the strength to fight not only his enemies without, but the enemy within.