It's Annual Day for the beleaguered classfellows at Core Town Academy, the flagship school within the heart of the bleak, oppressive Empire. It's a long, miserable day where each senior classfellow is callously reviewed and rated by the hard-hearted deans and icy Headmaster in a grim, intolerant prelude of their adult lives to come. Every senior walks into the Chamber of Consequence fearing how the deans will decide their futures and what paths they will be forced to follow. Some will enlist in the Garrison, some will be approved for university, but most will be denied their dreams with some sentenced to a lifetime of backbreaking manual labor. With the Empire's strict speech laws, ever-watchful informants, and a cruel reliance on corporal punishment, those that risk defiance are labeled seditious churners. And that comes with serious consequences. In Core Town, there are ever consequences.

But for three master classfellows, there is another path. A way out. Mysterious emissaries from a secret organization come to recruit runner Michael Smolder, boatswoman Elizabeth Esprit, and Classmaster Samantha Florett into their clandestine militia, one that is committed to bringing balance back to the world. The visitors offer astounding powers to these chosen three. Incredible abilities unlocked by ancient rings. Michael, Elizabeth, and Samantha must decide if they will accept the rigid paths that Core Town demands, or choose treasonous desertion. They must ask themselves how far they are willing to go to become what they were meant to be.

As the three struggle to figure out the truths in Core Town and where their destinies lead, they will discover that what lies within them is truly elemental.