On the way to the Temple of the Singing Flame, the cabal chats with the Red Martians. Adele in particular is interested in their religion. They worship an ancient eternal fire which contains the lore of their ancestors. The cabal also learns that the leader of the refugees, a General Sar, fell in battle recently and that the Tyrant may soon come to eliminate them.
Soon they reach a solitary mesa surrounded by a field of tents and the sounds and smells of thousands of Red Martians. The camp is lightly defended with the only point of refuge being the vast temple carved into the mesa.
They head to the temple. Inside they find a towering flame made up of a swirl of nine colors, including two they are unable to identify. As they take in the awesome sight, they also see a line pilgrims bring precious wood to the high priestess, Lim-Ales, to feed the flame. They also notice a young boy talking with her. After waiting for a break in the offerings, Valkyrie approaches and offer her services in defending the camp. Lim-Ales thanks her and explains the refugees’ dire plight. It seems the Tyrant has acquired an ancient war machine in the form of a gigantic crab and is using it crush his enemies. They learn he has acquired this device from a being known as the Old One, an ancient Martian with knowledge of many artifacts.
The cabal discusses what path to take, whether to pursue the Old One and possibly learn the machine’s weakness or to shore up the camp’s defenses. Mammon and Adele weigh in against a plan to split the group, while Colt defers to Valkyrie as the commander in this situation. Valkyrie decides to focus on the camp first, directing Colt to heal the wounded and ordering the able bodied troops to dig ditch around the camp’s wall. She also makes sure the watchers atop the mesa are vigilant.
As these preparations progress they also hear that many 10 year old boys have been snatched by the Tyrant. Their fate is unknown. They also learn the history of the Tyrant, how he rose from being a slave to being leader of Helios. It is said he wields a magic jewel called the Emerald Star which allows him affect people’s minds.
Adele meanwhile finds the young boy she saw in the temple, singing a song near the wall. She approaches him and asks about the song. Though defensive, he warms up to her. He says that his name is Vane and that he has dreamt of the song, though his mother, the Priestess, has warned him not to sing it. Adele decides this is important and informs Valkyrie.
Valkyrie meanwhile goes to talk to the priestess about the fire. She learns that it holds the memories of ancient Mars but that the songs to activate it have been mostly lost. Valkyrie encourages Lim-Ales to use it to conjure a dust storm to slow down the Tyrant’s forces. She agrees to do so and as she sings, a massive storm rises over the desert moving away toward the Tyrant. However she is visibly drained afterwards and needs to rest. She places the cabal in charge of watching the fire.
Night falls and they watch the flame. Slowly the melodic singing of the fire lulls Adele to sleep. The others meanwhile slowly puzzle out the song, hearing the flame speak to them. It goads them into feeding it more wood in exchange for the secrets of ancient Mars. Mammon supports giving more wood to the fire while Valkyrie and Colt are more cautious. Valkyrie sings back and learns that it promises lost lore in exchange more fuel so that it can get larger. Adele wakes up as this discussion occurs and agrees on the need for caution. Valkyrie decides to wait until sunrise to ask the priestess what is the correct course.
In the morning, the tired mages learn that not listening to the fire was the correct course of action. Lim-Ales explains that if they had fed the fire too much it would have raged out of control.
Later in the morning at Adele’s urging, Valkyrie has a talk with Vane. She learns the song from him, a song he says he has always known. Just as they finish, Lim-Ales shows up, angry at her son Vane for singing the song again. She says that the ancestral songs are dangerous and draining, especially for someone so young. She also relates that they don’t even know what the song does. Valkyrie tries to calm her but she storms off with the boy in tow.
Valkyrie decides it is time to consult the Old One. Mammon pulls a memory of the Old One’s fossilized tower from the mind of one of the Martians and then scries the location. Once he has managed to establish a sympathetic connection, he and Adele construct a portal to the location.
They find a metal disk near the base of the organic tower which shoots up once they step on it, taking them to a translucent sphere at the top. They soon find the Old One there, working on a strange device amid the cast off inventions and broken devices of its tower. The device seems to destroy or eliminate matter when it points it at a nearby hill. It explains that the device shrinks the atoms in an object.
It also explains that it can tell them what they need to know at the cost of their mortal connections. As they talk they can see the Adversary approaching in the distance with a dozen armed men. Colt quickly bargains with the Old One, giving up his bond to his old mail man for the shrink ray to destroy the approaching troops.
Meanwhile the others carefully consider who they are willing to lose and for what. Valkyrie gives up her bond with a first floor neighbor she sees occasionally for the secret of Vane’s song. The Old One explains the song will bring peace to Mars and break the Tyrant’s hold over the people. But it will come at a cost. One of the singers will die. Hesitant to take the easy way out she makes a further trade, one of her high school friends for a device to stop the Crusticon, the Tyrant’s war machine. He gives her a disk that when activated and attached to the machine will destroy it utterly. But her friendship with that person now no longer exists and never did.
The others carefully consider their questions and Mammon prepares to bargain for the lowest cost. Adele decides to give up her contact with Professor Rutledge to learn more about her mother, the White Lady, while Mammon trades one of his Akido class partners for the truth of why the Seers are interested in him. He learns that the Exarch’s have sent dreams to their followers warning that he may gain access to a potent source of Supernal power. Finally Mammon trades the bond to his remaining grandparents for the secrets of the Great Fire Spirit, learning its history and ban.
With the Adversary closing in, the Old One gives Colt the weapon. To his dismay he finds it to be horrifically effective, reducing the size of the enemies’ atoms but not their position, making them into a fine mist. The Adversary makes it to the tower and Valkyrie draws a flaming sword to meet her double.