Rathen Koraaz lives his banishment in some kind of comfort - comfort that comes solely in the knowledge that, this time, no one can take his home away from him. Until authority in the shape of an inquisitor from the Hall of the White Hammer turns up on his doorstep, trying to recruit him to investigate the cataclysmic magic ravaging the rest of the continent before it can reach their borders.

The trouble is, Rathen was a warmage. He was never a scholar; analysing magic has never been his strong suit. That, and he was banished for a reason. Official dispensation or not, Rathen is sorely aware that he's better off staying out of the matter and well away from people.
Unfortunately, his pesky sense of responsibility - as a father more than anything else - won't let him turn his back on it.

Joining the inquisitor with his 8-year-old daughter in tow, he follows the 'educated guesses' of a young historian and a growing band of misfits to chase the legend of an ancient artefact that could, just maybe, eradicate the magic once and for all. Rathen certainly hopes so. Otherwise, it falls to him not only to figure out where the magic came from, but to construct an impossible solution, himself. And if he can't, well...the ground might open up and take his home away after all. And everyone else's with it - assuming the over-dedicated leader of the Arana doesn't do it himself, first.