Fifty years have passed since the Darbhein disappeared. The tall and long-lived folk of scale and tooth were once great allies to menfolk, but a day came when every last soul vanished. In their absence, the Humaine are lost. They fall to warring, feuding, and meddling with things they do not understand.
Molag, knight of Nul steps forth into a lay field. The thing he hunts awaits him. The Baoleth. A shape of fire and teeth, of corruption and despair. It is Molag's task to kill it.
Spellsinger Drelle of Coldharbr stands at the water's edge, plucking a stone from a fish. An orphan girl Senhora stares from a window, thinking of ever more difficult questions. A boy, Kief, sits on a rock and begs for things he doesn't want.
An old man tells this tale over the course of a single night on a riverboat. His grandchildren listen and try to forget such terrible things which slump in their wake.
