High Priest S'Rak is cursed with the ability to foretell the future. Sometimes. The problem with prophecy is that the Gods get involved and if any God is working to complete one, there's always another God working to prevent it. S'Rak knows that something bad is coming. He knows that he can leave and avoid a great deal of pain and suffering and woe.
Captain Jisten doesn't have mystical abilities to rely on, so he relies on his own senses and on logic. A murder in the city of a person he holds dear drives a deeper wedge between the already strained relations he has with the high priest. The events of the summer continue to haunt him even as S'Rak is named a murder suspect.