The globe-spanning Theran Empire protected the world from the ravages of the Scourge with its magical prowess and strength. The Scourge is over but violence and horror are not so easily dissuaded. In the imperial city of Vivane, nobles and their children are suffering terrible and gruesome fates: suicide, brutal and bloody murder, catatonic madness, grisly "accidents" that are anything but accidental. So, the Empire dispatches the elf Cassian to investigate. Warrior, diplomat, scholar, Cassian becomes enmeshed in a web of confusing mysteries that drag him from the machinations of Theran high society to the dangerous Undercity of Vivane. It is a pernicious journey in which Cassian is forced to tangle with paranoid wizards, brain-dead zombies and homicidal orks. But is it his growing friendship with the slave boy, Jerann, which leads him inexorably to the dark heart of the Terror haunting Vivane.