The Oracle’s War unfolds in a world where destinies are dictated by prophecy, or so it seems. The story begins with a desperate mother fleeing the city with her newborn, defying the King’s decree to execute all winter-born children. She is being lead by a woman who claims that she has gotten many people out of the city. Her journey is cut short by betrayal, a chilling prelude to the larger conflict.

We are then drawn into the life of Zara, a young woman struggling to survive in the slums of Neighborhood C. She always has her face hidden in masks and scarves, even when it is much too hot. She is having a witty conversation throughout with her best friend and inner voice Solara. After losing her mother and sister in a market raid, she’s taken in by the seemingly kind Mother Jabiil, only to discover a horrifying truth: Jabiil’s home is a brothel, where women are treated as commodities, called different flower names and Zara is given one of her own. Stripped of her inner voice, Solara, Zara navigates this new reality, reconnecting with her childhood friend Amo, with whom she sees in new light and starts a sweet love relationship with. She also encounters Prince Amir, the brother not meant to rule, and the enigmatic Omar, whose connection to the library and its resident dragon, Eldara, proves crucial. Each of them is unknowingly a key player in the unfolding prophecy, and one by one, the Oracle reveals their supposed roles.

Amir goes to find Zara’s family in the slums and realizes that he is living a privileged life and turning a blind eye. He decides to meet with council members behind his father’s back to makes changes and his father ends up becoming furious. To get Amir to leave he gives him an envelope with the person who was responsible for his mother’s death and he goes to find them.

Mother Jabiil is murdered by Prince Amir, driven by the revelation of her role in his mother’s death, Zara escapes to the desert. The audience is then given the entire prophecy the oracle had given where Mother Jabiil, the King and Commander Samir were present. It speaks of the last dragon rider and someone who is meant to rule and destroy the cruel King. The king has the oracle imprisoned to his towers and it seems like that Is exactly what she was hoping for.

In the desert, Zara is reunited with her estranged father, Commander Samir of the Imperfects, and finds training and guidance from her warrior aunt, Ember. Ember teaches Zara to fight and survive, but also exposes the dark side of the Imperfect rebellion – their tactics of terror and indiscriminate killing. Amo’s betrayal during a training session shatters Zara’s illusions, revealing the lies upon which her world is built. Meanwhile, we follow Amir’s journey as he grapples with guilt and seeks answers about his past, eventually finding himself drawn to Chu Druk Peak. 

Amir meets an unlikely friend in a white horse named Styx that a random woman trades him for in a small town. He is also perplexed at all the land and wonder beyond the desert on his way to the mountains. Finding plenty of water and food and wondering about the commoners who starve in his kingdom. He makes it to the mountain with Styx and realizes his mother is alive and that Styx is a polymorph, whom everyone thought were gone from the world. 

With the help of Ember Zara learns that dragons and wyverns still exist. And that the Imperfects plan to kill as many wyvern as possible and bring back the dragons to take down the King who thought he killed them all. Zara and Ember, disillusioned with the rebels, seek a third path. Fleeing the Imperfects, they are attacked by a veil walker, a dark creature capable of interdimensional travel. Ember is injured, poisoned by the veil walker’s dark magic, and Zara turns to Omar for help. Their bond deepens into a passionate love, and there are a couple of spicy scenes as they finally come together. The oracle finally comes to Zara and Zara suspects the Oracle’s prophecies are serving the oracle’s own agenda, manipulating events rather than simply foretelling the future. Before Zara can confront Omar with her suspicions, the Oracle appears to him, demanding that he fulfill his original task: to kill Zara. Torn between love and duty, Omar ultimately abandons Zara, fearing the Oracle’s wrath. Before he goes he fills Zara’s water and sends a private prayer to the old Gods that she stay safe.

Zara awakens alone, and Ember’s vanished. She notices footprints and knows Ember couldn’t travel alone and follows them. She stumbles upon Amir, outside a cave. Immediately she attacks him, anger coursing through her veins. But weakened by poison that she realizes was in her water Omar filled, she collapses after a brief struggle. She asks Amir where Ember is. He tells her Ember is close to becoming a veil walker. Zara tells him to give Ember water from the dragon’s pond, hoping to save her. She blacks out and Amir realizes Zara has been poisoned.

The final chapter shifts to a year prior, introducing the protagonist/antagonist of book two. This figure, Prince Stygian Frostborn, is imprisoned and masked, offers a twist on the “Man in the Iron Mask” trope. He is a true Prince of the King but had been kept away. The oracle being sent to the towers due to the prophecy had trained him, in warfare, politics, and she thinks she has molded him into the perfect King. But he is angry, angry at the world that has scorned him and vows to ruin the kingdom but that he wants to be called Styx. The last polymorph.