Peace has reigned in Cruachan since Seamus, the first High King, united the three kingdoms into a Confederation and, with the assistance of the dwarfs from the Sawtooth Mountains in the north and the elves from the Tangled Woods in the east, drove the occupying Northmen from the island nation. Yet there is an undercurrent of unrest. Some Cruachanians fought for independence, thinking that the hereditary system of government with its shire chieftains and provincial kings would be replaced by a republic. Others, who profited handsomely under the occupiers, still dream of yesteryears' wealth. In The Embers are Fanned in Cruachan, the second book of the tetralogy, Pádraig has graduated from the Academy for the Spiritually Gifted as an Apprentice Wizard in a little less than eight years. After spending a month with the journeyman wizards in each of the seventeen shires in the Kingdoms of the Western and Eastern Shires, he now sets out for a five-month stint in the Northern Shires, assigned to an oblate wizard who lives in the middle of nowhere in the foothills of the Sawtooth Mountains. When Pádraig ventures out to investigate reports of some suspicious goings-on up at North Head, he finds himself drugged and imprisoned, with no one knowing his whereabouts. However, his former love and classmate, Máiréad, also an apprentice wizard, senses his presence, and sets out to help him escape and attempt to save the Confederation of the Three Kingdoms from an impending insurrection.