Kevoram, captain of the Order of Shadows, and his apprentice, Eragan, go to the Drahanan monastery. For a year they will live cut off from the world in the company of the clerics and a group who came to study the magic of Runique. Shortly after their arrival, a cleric dark in madness before dying. His body is covered with runes engraved with his flesh and the walls of his cell covered with mysterious writings. The two members of the Order will have to discover what is hidden in the bowels of the monastery if they want to survive this year of retreat...