Expert swordsmen Basilio and Alejo have one last objective before they go their separate methods: they must recover their teacher Don Manuel’s ancient fighting with each other manual and take it to remote Cataluña to be able to have it translated with the popular alchemist Paracelsus. Unbeknownst to them, nevertheless, Don Manuel continues to be murdered, and a host of powerful pushes has come searching for the sought after publication – everyone from older lovers and lifelong archenemies to the King’s assassin, and the Spanish Inquisition. The activities of Basilio and Alejo usher in a new era of travels in Foreworld, one wherein the Shield-Brethren, the fabled warrior monks of the middle ages era, have been stricken from background. Old customs are threatened and long-standing secrets are in danger of being revealed.