In this short story, Morauk, a young Warrior, is tasked with escorting Rastar, an irritable old wizard, across a desolate landscape to find and destroy the four magickal devices that control fire, wind, water, and the darkness that causes men to go mad with fear. It is the Key of Darkness, which was thought to have been destroyed a thousand years earlier, that the powerful wizard currently seeks. Enter Balkor, a man turned demon by the possession of the evil black key he found when Banished to the Burned Lands by his people for murdering a shaman.