The members of the sister-team are united in their identity as Darkoverian Free Amazons or as members of the Bridge Society. Darkoverian Free Amazons have joined together in communal houses to resist the increasingly patriarchal structure of Hasturian society and its restrictive roles for women. The central pair in the questing team (and familiar from Thendara House) are the free-mates Jaelle and Magda, one Darkoverian and the other Terran. They were united in the Forbidden Tower by a quartet of idealistic psychics who broke from the traditional hierarchical patterns and hope to share the advantages of psi power with all who possess the necessary sensitivity and motivation. They are further united by their motherhood since, as free-mates, they hold guardianship and spiritual parenthood of one another's daughters.

Both Magda and Jaelle are regarded as ground-breakers and adventurers.

Magda's reputation, in particular, becomes a source of trial, as an...