For years Lakif has agonized over the timeless secret of the Arcanum, but at last her dream, the elusive Rare Earth Stone, is literally in hand. All she must do is liberate its eldritch might. It seems straightforward...

But harnessing the Arcanum proves to be a task beyond all imagining. Is the answer in the fiery magma pits of the Vulcan? Or is it, as some locals whisper, guarded by an ancient figure that haunts the ruined city underneath Grimpkin? To make matters worse, her interest in the forbidden relic has attracted some attention, for a mysterious agent is now tracking her. There are many plaguing questions, not the least of which is disturbing new information that ties Torkoth, Lakif's amnesic guard, to a series of violent murders. To sort it all out, Lakif must confront her own secret past, an odyssey that propels her into the dreaded underworld and further, to the threshold of a distant shrine with an unspeakable past.