Jane and the others have left behind the Island of Shadows, but they can't leave behind the lingering consequences. She now holds the magick of darkness within her, and slumbering as he is there is still danger in traveling with such a powerful companion.
That danger arrives on the heels of torrential rain and whipping winds. A storm for the ages traps them in a remote town where the locals cast suspicious glances at them. They soon learn that other outsiders have come with demands for the ancient automata harbored within their metalus mines.
One of the villagers, a young historian, takes a liking to them and offers them shelter in his tiny abode. There he regales them with tales of a mighty hero who protected the village many millennia ago. The other villagers ridicule his love of the past when their future is so perilous, but the historian assures them he has a plan. That plan involves Jane, and as the storm worsens and new foes arrive she finds herself caught in a web of lies and greed, a web in which she must break free, or die trying.