Quinton's quest for information on how to remove the mark of the damned and free the mermaid Aquaria leads him back to the very city he fought so hard to escape. Confronted by old enemies among the ruins, he finds himself in the middle of a civil war that threatens to destroy what little remains of the once prosperous city. His only hope is in a desperate plan to free a mysterious prisoner held within Lord Wren's dungeon. With darkness closing in around him, he must free the stranger and obtain the secret of the mark before time runs out.