The Wasting, a dangerous hereditary disease, has cursed the members of a small northern family for generations. After their mother fell to the disease, watching her brother die from the same affliction, Keyt decides it is finally time to take action, to find a cure and stop the Wasting once and for all. She is willing to follow any lead, any legend, any hope there is to be found in order to save her brother Malec from the inevitable.

Her search leads her to information about a mysterious water source called the lifespring, reportedly able to cure all ailments, both magical and natural. Nobody knows precisely where the lifespring is located, or if it even exists outside of the legends, but Keyt is determined to find it in time to save her brother.

From the glacial peaks of the Ram Mountains to an oasis in the middle of the searing Fusite Desert to a set of dangerous subterranean caves outside of Ruschlack, she searches high and low, collecting samples of any water she finds in the hope that one of them contains what she needs to save the last of her family.