 Bane persuades the elven lieutenant to take him, Hugh, Alfred, Haplo and Limbeck to the High Realm to visit his father Sinistrad.Bane has been communicating with his father all his life, via a magical feather amulet.Over the course of the book it has become clear that Bane has magical power to make people love him (a spell cast by his father), and he is also able to manipulate people, but that he also wants to be loved by his father, and hopes to rule Mid Realm side by side with him.