The War of Magi left little but ashes and misery in its wake. Even magic itself had vanished from the world. Now, a thousand years later, humankind has remade the world through the power of iron, gunpowder, steam engines, and other machines and technologies.

But there is one who possesses the lost power of magic--a young girl name Terra whom the evil Empire has kept enslaved in an effort to harness her power as weapon. This leads to a fateful meeting between Terra and a young man named Locke. Their harrowing escape from the Empire's clutches sets in motion a series of events that touches countless lives and leads to one inevitable conclusion.