Nezierre Yvrit Schar is an extremely pale and slender young woman who lives on a planet called Yamsa in the northern galactic quadrant, very far from the Core Worlds. Her father is a farmer; she never knew her mother. Nez, as her friends call her, does not work on her father's farm, as do all of her friends; instead, her father has begrudgingly paid for the surgeries and implants necessary to allow Nez to be able to play games in a shared virtual space. Nez is extremely good at these games, but her main interest is in speed; she has a gift for figuring out how to exploit the physics simulations within the games in order to move more quickly than should be possible. This is widely regarded as a somewhat useless skill, but has earned her a measure of fame in some underground racing communities, made up of likeminded individuals with similar skills from throughout the galaxy.

Nez's father tolerates her hobby because her prize winnings frequently eclipse his earnings from the farm. He resents this, but is forced to depend on her income. He keeps this fact hidden from her because she is below the age of majority on Yamsa and as such cannot hold a bank account of her own. He leads her to believe that she earns little more than pocket change from her hobby (this doesn't entirely make sense because how would she not know what she's making from winning these tournaments? figure out later). Relations between the two are strained but stable, until her father interrupts her in the middle of a tournament to help him tend to an injured farmhand. They argue as they do and eventually her father strikes her and tells her that her mother wouldn't have been proud of her. Nez runs and steals her father's airbike and rides it into town, where she observes an Imperial messenger pass by. In a fit of rage, she goes to the notary's office and declares herself an adult. In Yamsa culture this indicates that she is an independent adult but removes any parental obligation of protection or support. She then takes the airbike back to the farm to gather her few belongings, but discovers the Imperial messenger and her father waiting for her.

The message from the Imperium is a summons for her to appear in person on Proxima IV, the Emperor's seat of power, to represent Yamsa in a Trial of Possession. The Laddino Imperium has long done away with wars and violence and instead uses a form of virtual combat, either in teams or alone, to settle disputes. Those without proficiency or equipment of their own can hire professional fighters, called Morats, to fight for them. The Trial of Possession is over the ownership of the planet Yamsa; Yamsa is one of the last few truly independent planets within the Imperium, but the Emperor is challenging this right and if he wins the Trial Yamsa will become another Imperial fiefdom. Yamsa is rich in a rare material called n'qa-metal, which is used to build sculptures, but the extraction process is difficult and destroys the ecosystem. Yamsa extracts no n'qa-metal itself, but if it becomes the Emperor's possession he will destroy the planet in order to remove as much n'qa-metal as possible.

Nez is confused and explains that she is hardly a Morat, but the messenger tells her that she is in the top one percent of gamesplayers on Yamsa in terms of earnings and as such is the only qualified individual on Yamsa who can compete. He quotes a large sum as her earnings for the last year, and Nez's confusion turns to anger. Her and her father have a huge argument and he again says that her mother would not have been proud of her. Nez turns to the messenger and tells him that she accepts. Her father, unaware of her declaration in town and thinking he still can make decisions for her, refuses to allow her to leave. They argue further, but the messenger explains that as she is not an adult, he must take her father's decision, and turns to go. Nez interrupts and tells of the declaration she made and urges the messenger to take her with him. Her father strikes her again and throws her to the ground. Before he can do anything else, the messenger puts a blade to his neck and forces him away. He helps Nez to her feet and informs her father that it is true, he has just checked the notary's database. He informs Nez that he will collect her in the morning for their departure and turns to leave. Nez asks where she will stay until then and he shrugs and leaves. Her father stares at her and then calls the police and tells them there is an intruder in his home.

Nez spends the night in jail. In the morning, the Imperial messenger arrives and she is released into his custody. They travel to the uplink center on the edge of town and are there teleported to Proxima IV. Due to an error with the teleporter, they arrive fifty years later. The Trial is long over and the Emperor has won. Additionally, the messenger, Fsyun Omeidas, has been replaced and no longer works for the Imperial Court. Omeidas leaves immediately and Nez, not knowing what to do, follows him to a bar where he proceeds to get drunk. Nez sits down with him and he tells her to go away. Nez stays, though, and asks him what he will do now. He shrugs, and asks what she will do, and it becomes obvious that Nez has no idea. He asks if there were any messages held for her; she doesn't understand, never having travelled by uplink before. Omeidas explains that the Department of Communication would have held anything she received while she was in the teleport. The two travel to the nearest Department of Communication office, Omeidas not having anything better to do. There, Nez discovers that her father has died and that he had explicitly written her out of his will. However, having no other living descendents, the farm passed to her due to Yamsan property laws, and that when the Emperor acquired the planet, he paid her for the land the farm was on, making her not rich by Capitol standards, but not destitute. There is also a mysterious note with no return address or signature, telling her to come to a specific location by the docks fifty years ago. Nez and Omeidas are puzzled by this and inquire with the computer system as to who sent it, but it has no records of the note.

Nez decides that she will remain in the capitol, no longer having a home to return to, and hires Omeidas as a guide. Nez rents an apartment. Some fun cultural moments etc, maybe something with the toilet, whatever. Afterwards, Omeidas and Nez travel to the docks to survey the location and find nothing of interest. On the way back, they watch as the Emperor rolls by in a motorcade on the way to the Imperial palace. Omeidas observes that the old Emperor must have died, as he does not recognize the relatively young man in the imperial robes. Nez asks what the process is for declaring a Trial of Possession and Omeidas explains briefly before telling her doing what she's thinking about would be a very bad idea. Nez asks about how she can go about getting an audience with the Emperor, and again Omeidas tries to dissuade her, but eventually after she persists he tells her the process for applying for an audience. Omeidas thinks that she will never be granted one, so he doesn't worry much about it.

Nez and Omeidas return to the apartment, but find several men waiting for them. The men leave with Omeidas, who tells Nez he will be back later. Nez thinks that something about this whole situation is funny but she doesn't have a chance to ask questions before he is gone. Nez lazes around watching holodramas and waiting for Omeidas, but he does not return that day. The next day, she makes breakfast for herself but ends up burning it thanks to the unfamiliar design of the stove, so she orders food instead. Afterwards, she browses the internet looking for races, and enters one, but finds that she is practically unable to compete using her 50-year-old equipment, which is now so obsolete. She is laughed out of the competition and she ends up in tears alone in the apartment.

Nez goes for a walk to a cybernetics shop, but finds that the cost of new hardware would bankrupt her. She returns to the apartment glumly and finds a battered Omeidas sitting on the couch watching holo. He greets her as if nothing is wrong but Nez is shocked and immediately goes to help him. Omeidas waves her off and eventually just asks her to get him something to drink. Nez brings him a glass of water and Omeidas laughs at her and then gets up himself and gets a bottle of liquor from the fridge. Omeidas tries not to explain what happened, but when Nez starts to call the police he relents and tells her that the men waiting for him were gangsters to whom he owes money. The debt is large enough that the organization has kept track of it for the whole time he has been gone. When he couldn't pay even a fraction of it, they beat him up instead and took everything he had on him. Nez immediately offers to pay off the debt, but Omeidas dismisses this offer. Nez, a little offended, persists, and Omeidas gets angry at her. Nez, remembering her father, leaves, but runs into a messenger coming up the elevator. Nez watches as the messenger knocks at her own door. Omeidas answers and the messenger asks for Nez. She returns, a little sheepish, and the messenger delivers her a message from the Emperor asking her to attend on him at once. Their squabble forgotten, Omeidas helps Nez find appropriate attire for visiting the Emperor and then they both head out towards the Imperial Palace.

At the palace, Nez and Omeidas wait for a long while before they are called in to the receiving room. The Emperor greets them and speaks to Nez. He says that he normally would not have granted her an audience but he was informed that she is Yamsa Diaspora and wanted to speak to her about her planet. Nez asks for the planet back, provoking laughter from the court. The Emperor takes her seriously and explains that it isn't that simple and that he cannot just give it back. Nez speaks at length about the natural beauty of Yamsa and once again asks for the planet back, and the Emperor again denies her. Nez declares that she will file for a Trial of Possession and the court quiets. The Emperor asks her not to, but Nez insists that she will. The Emperor then asks if she has the exorbitant sum required to file a Trial against the Emperor, and after a long silence Nez admits she does not. The Emperor dismisses her but before she and Omeidas can leave, a voice from the court calls out that they will sponsor Nez.

The voice belongs to the Lady Trevim, an ambassador from a neighboring empire, the Rix Collective. The Rix are viewed with suspicion by the Laddino Imperium but they are not at outright war. The Emperor is very displeased and dismisses Trevim as well, and she joins Nez and Omeidas. Omeidas immediately dislikes her, but Nez feels an affinity for her and the two of them go to lunch while Omeidas departs. There, Trevim mentions offhand that she knew Nez's mother and Nez immediately jumps on the topic, somewhat to Trevim's surprise. After some further questioning, Nez explains about her relationship with her father and her never having known her mother, and Trevim tells a few anecdotes about her mother and mentions how sad she was when her mother died. Nez gets quiet and Trevim apologizes. Nez admits that even though she had been caught in the teleporter for fifty years, she had hoped that she would still be alive. Trevim then asks if Nez would like to see her.

The two of them travel to the equivalent of a cemetery where Nez's mother is interred. Nez is confused as to why her mother would be buried on Proxima IV, but Trevim explains that her mother was a noble and was therefore entitled to be buried on the capitol world. There is a hologram of her that Nez interacts with and she breaks down and cries when she discovers that her mother's name was Yvrit. Trevim and Nez leave, and before Nez returns to her apartment Trevim sends her a huge amount of money and tells her to get new equipment and to be ready to train with it.

Omeidas greets Nez angrily; he has been doing research on Trevim and shows her a number of news pieces regarding Trevim as being a spy from the Rix. Nez brushes these suspicions off, however, feeling very close to Trevim after receiving some closure about her mother. She informs Omeidas of Trevim's gift to her, and Omeidas gloomily mentions that it would be enough to pay off his debt and then some. Nez, conflicted, spends a few days researching and finds that there is no way for her to both pay off Omeidas' debt and purchase new equipment, even if she cheaps out on the equipment. Omeidas protests that it isn't necessary, but Nez insists, and with some hesitation, Omeidas accepts. He departs to go repay the debt. The same day, the official paperwork for the Trial arrives and Nez flies into a panic. Despite not wishing to, she travels to Trevim's residence and calls on her.

Trevim becomes furiously angry when she hears what Nez has done with the money but masters herself quickly. She tells a story about Nez's mother when she had been similarly headstrong and says that she will see what she can do but warns Nez not to be so rash in the future. Nez thinks she detects a hint of danger in Trevim's voice and thinks of what Omeidas had discovered about Trevim, but pushes it out of her mind. She returns to the apartment and spends the day researching Trials. She becomes mildly worried when Omeidas does not return in the evening, but assumes he is out partying and does not think much of it. The next day, Trevim arrives and takes Nez to a cyberneticist who provides her with new state-of-the-art equipment. Nez is overjoyed at the performance and freedom it offers her and spends the rest of the day in a cybernetic fugue in the recovery lounge, even though she was warned not to overdo it. She investigates a few new online games and finds that her skills at manipulating their physics are still as sharp as ever. She comes out of the fugue to a splitting headache and a mildly chagrinned Trevim waiting to collect her. Trevim takes her back to her apartment and tells her to rest for a day or so and then begin training. The Emperor, being the challenged party, chooses the venue of the Trial, and has chosen a very obtuse arena simulation, which Nez is profoundly unskilled at.

Before she leaves, Trevim examines a piece of mail Nez has received and takes it with her without Nez noticing. Outside the apartment, Trevim burns the letter. Omeidas, unknown to Trevim, watches from an alley. Once Trevim departs, Omeidas runs upstairs and informs Nez of what he saw. Nez doesn't believe him and they fight. When Nez reveals that Trevim has provided cutting-edge equipment for her to use, Omeidas becomes worried. He wants Nez to come to a different cyberneticist and have it looked over, but Nez snaps at him for not trusting Trevim. The fight escalates and eventually Omeidas storms out. Nez, still angry, enlists in a racing tournament and wins handily. This bolsters her morale a little and she throws herself into training for the Trial. Nez picks up skill at a steady pace, but worries that all that she has learned will still prove insufficient to win. Several reporters come to the apartment to interview her regarding the Trial, and she learns from one of them that the Emperor's Morat has been chosen, the leading champion at that particular simulation. The media is rife with speculation as to why such a skilled Morat was employed, and Nez is just as puzzled.

Omeidas mails Nez a hit piece a magazine has done on her, digging into her past on Yamsa, and Nez, furious, sends him a scathing reply. Omeidas shows up at the apartment a few hours later with flowers and a box of Nez's favorite fruit. Nez reluctantly allows him to enter, and they make up. Omeidas very carefully avoids mentioning any of his suspicions regarding Trevim, and Nez loans him a set of VR goggles to show him her skills in the arena game. They set up a match and Omeidas clobbers her easily. Nez, extremely discouraged, jacks out and paces around while Omeidas tries to reason with her. Eventually Nez asks him how he was able to beat her and Omeidas gives her an extremely technical explanation of what she's doing wrong that shows that he is an expert in the simulation. Nez, shocked, asks how he knows all this, and Omeidas explains that he used to be a Morat before he became an Imperial messenger. Nez asks what happened, and Omeidas grimaces and explains that he got in bed with the mafia, the same mafia he owed money to, because his wife had a rare and debilitating genetic illness and the treatment for it was so expensive that a Morat's salary wasn't enough for it. He did dirty cyberspace jobs for the mafia to repay the loan he took, but one of the jobs went wrong and brought a lot of scrutiny onto him and onto the mafia. They cut ties with him, leaving him with a large debt to repay. His reputation as a Morat was ruined as well. An old friend pulled strings and got him a job as an Imperial messenger, and that was that.

Nez and Omeidas train together and under his tutelage she becomes very skilled at the simulation. She is still unable to beat him, however, and according to Omeidas this means she will not be able to beat the champion. At night, while Omeidas is asleep, Nez plays matches against random people online and achieves a winrate of around 50%. The reigning champion's winrate is closer to 75%. Nez, in despair, eventually just slumps against the wall and doesn't fight back, letting people kill her. Eventually she plays against someone who sits down with her as well and they talk for a while. Nez explains who she is and her opponent mentions that he's been following media coverage of the trial and that he thinks that it was a valiant but misguided effort on Nez's part. Nez asks why and he says that filing the trial has put the Emperor in a difficult position. The Yamsa Trial was a massively unpopular decision on the part of the previous emperor, but the financiers and elite in need of the n'qa-metal forced the Emperor at the time to go through with it anyway, in spite of the backlash. Yamsa Diaspora throughout the Imperium frequently work against the present Emperor's movements and focus on ecological and humanist arguments that are difficult to argue against without making the Emperor look like a villain. Further, Trevim's public support for Nez makes Nez look as though she is aiding a rival empire, and if the Emperor loses this Trial he will be made to look weak. She is, the player explains, putting the Emperor in a difficult position and forcing him to choose one of many bad choices.

Nez asks what she ought to do, and after some consideration, the player says, "Win." He shows Nez a glitch in the game that she can exploit during the fight to win. Nez thinks about this for a while but argues that she wouldn't have truly won if she did that. The player says that he knows that, and that she knows that, but everyone else will not, and that that is the only important thing. He asks what she will do when she has her planet back and Nez admits that she doesn't know, and that she hasn't had the heart to look at it to see how bad the ecological damage has been. The player suggests she look, and then disconnects.

Nez looks up an image of Yamsa and is shocked to discover that it is untouched and still as green as it ever has been; the native Yamsan population has been cleared off and all populated areas rewilded, but no extraction of n'qa-metal has taken place. Nez researches further and discovers that while plans were made to begin extraction, the previous Emperor died before they could be implemented and the current Emperor placed a moratorium on the plans in order to delay the destruction of Yamsa's natural beauty. Everyone had assumed Nez was upset over the Yamsans being removed from the planet, when she had thought the planet had been devastated. Immediately she requests an audience with the Emperor but is denied. She contacts Trevim and explains the situation, and Trevim expresses her sympathy but explains that they have passed the point where they can withdraw the challenge. Nez decides she will simply throw the match, but Trevim, rather furiously, insists that she does not, as it would be extremely insulting to the Emperor.

The day of the Trial arrives and Nez travels to the Judicial Department to perform the trial. She meets the Emperor's Morat, a slim man named Jernau, and immediately feels as though he is familiar somehow. She says little to him but as they shake hands he leans in and whispers 'win' to her and she recognizes him as the player that showed her the glitch.

The fight proceeds as normal. Jernau makes it clear that he will not go easy on Nez, and despite her misgivings, she uses the glitch to win. When she disconnects, she discovers that a feedback loop within her equipment has killed Jernau. Nez is immediately taken into custody and accused of being a Yamsan terrorist. Simultaneously, Trevim issues a Trial to the Emperor over the possession of key border worlds between the Imperium and the Rix, with herself as the Rix's Morat. Using an ancient technicality, Trevim is allowed to choose the venue, and opts for the same arena game that Nez had just competed in. Because the leading Morat for the game is now dead, the Emperor is expected to lose, and a massive amount of territory will change hands, causing the Imperium a great deal of weakness. Nez requests Trevim visit her, but she denies the request. Instead, Omeidas comes, and says he does not blame Nez for doing what she did, although he wishes that she had told him what she had planned. Nez furiously denies having had a hand in it and comes to the conclusion that Trevim must have inserted software into her new equipment to cause the feedback loop.

The Emperor appears, having listened to their conversation. He asks Nez if what she is saying is true and Nez admits that it is. She apologizes to the Emperor and explains that she hadn't known that the mining operation had never taken place to begin with. The Emperor decides to believe her and asks if she will be his Morat. Omeidas interrupts and offers to serve as Morat instead, but the Emperor dismisses him. Nez asks what will happen if she loses, and the Emperor says that he will honor the Trial, even though it killed Jernau, and that Yamsa will be hers to do with as she likes. Reluctantly, Nez agrees, and she is released and taken to a cyberneticist who looks over her equipment to make sure that the same feedback loop cannot occur. Back in the dungeon, Omeidas asks the Emperor if he is really going to remove the feedback loop, and the Emperor only smiles.

Nez spends a week sealed away from the world, with only Omeidas as company, while she trains. The glitch she used to win the fight has been patched out of the simulation and even with Omeidas pushing her as hard as she can go, Nez can only manage a winrate of 40%. Nez despairs, wondering what will happen to the worlds the Rix will claim if she loses the Trial. Omeidas, after long consideration, tells Nez that he does not believe that the Emperor disabled the feedback loop in her equipment, meaning that if she wins, Trevim will die. Nez sees the sense of this and in despair, throws down her equipment and leaves. She is accompanied by several Imperial soldiers, there to guard her against any sabotage, and they refuse to let her alone, even when she asks them to. She walks down to a corner store and buys alcohol, and then returns to Omeidas. They get drunk together and make love.

The next day, Omeidas is gone when Nez wakes up. She calls him but he does not answer, and not knowing what else to do she practices, but without much heart in it. She doesn't want to kill Trevim, but also doesn't want the Rix to gain more worlds. Insert something somewhere to make it clear that the Rix do awful things to worlds, idk. Nez begins stalling matches, running down the clock with the score at zero to force draws. She finds a host of glitches that help her evade combat and help her run away, and she begins to believe that she will be able to find a way to draw the Trial. Omeidas returns and kisses Nez, and she eagerly explains what she has discovered. Omeidas thinks about it and agrees, noting that while regarded as dishonorable, a draw would maintain the status quo.

The day of the Trial arrives and Nez is nervous but hopeful. Trevim is late, but arrives within an acceptable time and accuses the Emperor of treachery. Apparently, mafia thugs had tried to divert her car on the way to the palace, but she was able to evade them. Omeidas curses next to Nez and she realizes that he must have gone to them and set them on her to try and stall the Trial. She begins to confront him but she is needed in the Trial.

Nez and Trevim fight. Nez manages to almost run out the clock, but Trevim scores a lucky kill within the last seconds, and Nez manages to tie it up right on the buzzer. Because there are points on the board the Trial cannot end as a draw, and they must play overtime until there is a winner. Nez loses the second bout but rallies and wins in the third, killing Trevim with the feedback loop and preserving the border worlds.

Afterwards, while she is resting, Nez receives a letter from Trevim, sent posthumously, detailing that Trevim was in fact Nez's mother, having come to Yamsa as a Rix infiltrator to foment unrest but had fallen in love with her father and stayed long enough to have Nez. She had used cosmetic surgery and hacking to falsify her records as Nez's noble mother, and had faked her own death when Nez's father had come close to learning the truth, leaving Nez behind with him. The letter closes with Trevim telling Nez that she is proud of her, and that she hopes she will go on to do good, and apologizing for having manipulated her. Nez recognizes the handwriting on the letter as the same as the mysterious note held for her for fifty years. The story ends with Nez and Omeidas landing on Yamsa, as various ships land and let out Yamsa Diaspora, there to recolonize their home.