Even the smallest victory has a downside. It seems the enemy is defeated—but someone else, on a completely different scale, will come to avenge them. And on top of that, the stream of нечисть from the Breaches doesn’t just end; it sometimes even grows stronger. Responsibility for this, it seems, lies with the one who, for some unknown goal, repeatedly uses нитсшесты—homemade artifacts carrying a curse and corruption not only upon ordinary people, but upon experienced Wielders as well. Secret investigations and the Order of Saint George are literally thrown off their feet—how could a schoolboy named Vladimir Volkov find time for anything? Still, work is work.