Alastair Hunt, a mage, climbs up an ice glacier above the town of La Rinconada to access a hidden cave, where a vulnerable group of mothers, children, and the elderly have hidden. He is worried that something has happened to them, as the Enemy of Death didn’t show up to a scheduled showdown with the people’s champion, a mage with powerful abilities known as a Makar. Furthermore, a fire has been spotted in the ice cave, a signal that something is amiss.

Alastair is appalled to find slaughtered bodies of friends, teachers, and acquaintances as he enters the caves. There are also the dead bodies of the Chaos-ridden, those who were taken over by the Enemy.

He is devastated to find the dead body of his wife, Sarah. She clutches her knife, Semiramis, which he takes from her. He finds their infant child, Callum, who is remarkably alive but who has a badly broken leg. Alastair returns to Sarah; he sees that she has scratched a message into the cave ice: “KILL THE CHILD” (12).

Callum, or “Call,” is an angry 12-year-old who misbehaves at school. His leg often hurts and causes him to walk with a limping gait; he must sit out of sports at school and is sometimes bullied for this.