Many magical powers, peoples, and lone heroes are fighting for possession of two magical swords. The main hero of the cycle is Fess—he plays his own game, but unexpectedly finds himself at the center of a struggle over the Diamond and Wooden swords.
The Emperor of Melina begins a war against the magicians. Once, they trained him to be cruel; now he will show them what it means to suffer from that. At the same time, Agatha from the Danu tribe, a servant in a circus, finds in the forest a magical Wooden sword, Immellstorn. The fate of her enslaved people will depend on whose hands it ends up in…
Sidri the Dwarf leads a tiny detachment into a far underground kingdom to obtain a certain ancient artifact for his fellows.
And all of this is being watched by strange goat-legged aliens from another world—what their goal is remains unclear, but it hardly can be something truly noble.