Nequam returns to Calaspia from the Spiritworld to find that Ayactan is waging full-scale war against the Empire. Weakened by the separation from his body, Nequam is easily convinced by the demon that the Empire made the first aggressive move, and that it was they who tried to destroy his uninhabited body. Ayactan shows him an exaggerated vision of his relatives cursing his name and "burying" him - declaring him dead to them - and of Eridanus, his best friend, hunting him with an army of Lore-Masters and Culmus Sangui.

Blind with grief, Nequam takes over his army, and with Ayactan as his champion, he launches a series of violent attacks against the Empire. He even travels as far inland as the cultural capital of Armaah and burns it to the ground (it was because of this that the manmade island was built to replace the old capital). Many Lore-Masters from Itrim join Nequam: this is a unique chance to do whatever they want, without the rules and limitations prescribed by the Order of Itrim, and there hasn't ever been a dark sorcerer strong enough to stand up to the establishment up till now.

Nequam again travels to the Spiritworld, having done most of what Brogan told him to do. In a freak raid against his stronghold by Culmus Sangui, led by his once best friend, his body is found staring unseeing, and is promptly killed. Without their leader, the Ostentum quickly crumble and are hunted down. Ayactan goes into hiding, and is thought dead.

But Nequam was prepared for the worst, and like Brogan before him he left clues to the truth of things in the hope that someone might continue his work and complete what Brogan had begun (as readers will know from Bryn, books Two to Four).