In a world enslaved by those with the power of sorcery, a young boy named Cain awakens without memory deep in the hull of Medulla, a floating city beset by marauding slave traders. Sold as a merchant's concubine on the mainland of Darosia, the horrible murder of his brutal master dooms him to execution, but Dagobert, an official of the Malgan sorcerer, intervenes at the last moment to recruit Cain into an order of sorcerous assassins. Struggling to overcome the burdens of a power he does not understand and cannot control, Cain climbs the ranks of the order, while within him grows a darkness that threatens to consume not just himself, but all those around him. Only Dagobert recognises the power lying dormant within Cain for what it truly is, but his own dark secrets hold his tongue while the restless shades of the dead assault Cain at every chance, threatening to destroy the thin veil of sanity that holds the dark forces inside him at bay. "Scanning beyond the door, he saw a wide, rectangular room that was dimly lit. The walls were covered in sailor's canvass from top to bottom, upon which strange iconic markings had been scrawled in broad strokes with black ink. The floor was covered in a thick layer of blood and offal that reminded him of an abattoir; he looked closer and saw channels cut into the floor, just as you would expect in a place where butchery was the chief occupation. Four stone blocks were spaced out evenly across the room, engraved with glowing sigils that covered their every visible surface. The dull red light from the glyphs was the only light source in the room, barely adequate to show him that on each stone block there lay the motionless body of a boy."