By a remote and beautiful lake a young man, the Sark Darek, has made his camp in the centre of a mysterious, Stonehenge-like Ring of Stones.

As he tends his fire a warrior from the rival mountain tribe of the Mendicans attacks him - but the Ring of Stones is a magical place, and we see that Kreel and Kalem are fighting psychically through the media of the two young men. A strange blue light fills the Ring; both Darek and the Mendican are suddenly overwhelmed, and shocked and frightened, the Mendican stumbles backward out of the Ring and over the edge of the cliff ...

Meanwhile, Will and the band are on a diplomatic mission to Mendica. So far the Sarks and the Mendicans have been remote enough from the Citadel to escape the attentions of Xax and Kreel, but through the deathwands and the power of the Dark Crystal, the Xaxians are gradually taking over all Kale.

Will is greatly concerned that the two tribes are too involved with fighting each other to understand or appreciate the threat to them that Xax’s Warriors represent. But Assan, the Mendican leader, is preoccupied with the disappearance of his son Bruno...

When Darek comes to the Mendican camp, greatly wounded, bearing a note in blood that reads "Help Bruno", the Mendicans instantly give chase. Assan believes Bruno has been murdered by the Sark, and wishes to declare fullscale war. Will persuades Assan to give him a day to find out what happened within the Ring.

The band brings Darek back to Mendica, and he is put on trial for murder. At the last moment they discover that the Ring swapped the souls of Bruno and Darek: Assan was about to hang his own son, in the body of a Sark ...

Through Bruno’s tragic death the two tribes learn to see each other in a new light. They put aside their differences, and plan to form a united front against Xax. For as Kalem triumphantly tells Kreel, in the end "the wisdom of Light will always defeat the wisdom of Darkness."