Octavio Ar Stregone is an imperial official, a 43-year-old “lacier” by birth, who, by duty, investigates crimes connected with the use of forces beyond the ordinary. He is gifted—a wizard, the heir of a family whose coat of arms was destroyed. A mysterious murder of the imperial elector? An obsessed man spilling blood like water and breaking into a big city? Heretics plotting against the Church and the Emperor and preparing a rebellion? Octavio is a plug in every barrel. By a twist of circumstances, he becomes a pawn in the game of higher spirits. A pawn, of course, can become a queen—yet no one asks it for permission. And even a queen is only a piece in someone else’s game.