This collection of short stories and novelettes includes the previously published stories “The Potter’s Daughter” (a prequel to the novel The Element of Fire), “Holy Places,” “Rites of Passage,” “Houses of the Dead,” “Reflections” (the Giliead and Ilias stories, prequels to the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy), as well as “Night at the Opera” (a Nicholas and Reynard story original to this collection, set before the Nebula-nominated novel The Death of the Necromancer).