Mike wakes from a crash on an unknown planet where he is alone and injured in a way that temporarily affects his memory. He faces certain death, but is saved by a human inhabitant, Lammon. She trains him how to survive the desert and how to defend himself during a pre-determined battle with the evil Eagle-Lion God, Anzu. After the battle, Anzu is dead, Mike and Kittum, Lammon's sister are dying. Lammon places Mike and Kittum on a spacecraft, which is set to intercept the central star, Altair, to end the line of evil in mankind. As the craft clears the clouds, Lammon yells into the air.
Nergal is on his way to take custody of Anzu's body and essence and hears Lammon's anguish, which spurs him on. However, he is delayed and almost killed during a space anomaly, thought to be a trap set by Anzu's spirit. Nergal witnesses Mike's death from his orb's virtual-reality program. On the way back to Mars, his advance party is attacked by an unseen force, which threatens his ship and his escort ships. After struggling through the attack, they suddenly show up near Mars with the new planet, the lost nation of Elam, as the time-shift settles into the present. The idea that Anzu was responsible for the attacks becomes weak as events points to another entity: Yelop.
Corruption of the Assembly member, Menniphar, the main author of the Book of Truths, is exposed by Lammon. During the session, he attempts to murder Nergal and Lammon. As Menniphar runs from the Assembly, he is murdered by the lead scientist who accompanied the population disks during the earlier Aeterna Incident. He escapes through a prolapse of space, which alarms the gods.
Lammon shares a connection with Laura that no one could have imagined.
Inanna and Terri have gone through schism to release their fused union, convinced that evil has ended. Terri remains on Mars, while Inanna returns to her planet. Terri buries Mike's essence near her, but she still cannot rest while missing him and blaming herself for misleading him. Responding to the recent events, the Inner Circle approaches Terri to ask her to return to the service. She has had enough and declines. After a few months of sleepless nights due to images and revelations that won't go away, she and the gods are convinced that evil exists on a different level. The gods start to re-organize to the threat, should it ever materialize.
Nergal, Laura, Yan and Roger talk to Lammon, who is recovering. They offer her the opportunity to join the gods as Piniker, the god of Elam, of love, and of war. Elam will become an ally of the gods and settle into the orbit vacated by the destroyed Earth. Mars is on the way to balance the orbit.