Emperor Ashravan has been attacked by assassins as the Forger Shai was attempting to steal a royal artifact. Though physically safe, Ashravan's soul has been mutilated. The emperor's head councilors, Frava and Gaotona, debate what should be done with Shai. After a few days of debate, they bring Shai from her cell and tell her that she will be freed and get her Essence Marks (special forgery tools created for specific people that include different aspects of a personality) if she can forge the emperor's soul. Since he is supposedly in mourning for 100 days after the simultaneous death of his wife, Shai has until then to create a forged soul or she will die.

Shai decides that she can't create a soul in that amount of time, but will pretend to be doing research so she can escape later. All of her research is focused on the life, writings, and journals of the emperor, trying to recreate as close as possible his original personality. Shai also decides to add a little to his mentality so that he is more in line with her beliefs and needs, hopefully helping the whole world in the process as well. Gaotona questions her about Forgery, assuming it is based on historical artifacts or information the way his nation's magic system called Remembering does. Shai gives him a run-down on the basics of Forgery, a system of magic in her own country that is illegal in Gaotona's. Frava visits her later, and heavily implies that Shai could be killed at any time if she isn't sufficiently working to Forge the emperor's soul. She begins crafting stamps, the primary Forgery tool that seals the magic within the forged object, with earnest in her effort to make the emperor's personal Essence Mark.

After a number of failed attempts, Shai frets that she won't be able to complete her task. Frava appears and takes the notes that Shai has been compiling, claiming it is to have them copied just in case but is actually to bring them to a different Forger to see if Shai has finished enough that they can have her killed and make someone else complete it. Shai hopes that the tone she wrote in and the style of her writing was so intense that any other Forger would never want to even try to complete this. She was right, and got the book back.

After more work and the support of Gaotona, Shai feels close to completing the seal and planning her escape. But later, even more information about the life of the emperor comes to light and Shai questions her ability to finish the stamp accurately. There are only 15 days left.

Just as she finishes the emperor's stamp, one of Frava's guards comes into the room to kill her. Shai dispatches him with a trap she had set up beforehand, then runs to the throne room to stamp the emperor. He tells her to leave while she still has time, and she finds Gaotona to give him the stamp that he must use on the emperor every day until it holds for good, and he gives her back her Essence Marks.

The Forged emperor is exact, in mannerism and thought, to the original. Only Gaotona and Frava know what really happened. Later, Gaotona reads the notebook that Shai left for him, seeing all of her notes and plans but also a special note for him saying that Shai had added a little to the emperor's mind that would nudge him into being the just and kind man he wanted to be when he was a child. Gaotona burns the book.