Valentine is starting to realise how easy it is to mislead people through only telling the truth, it's only a pity she's learning this from her employer, the enigmatic Mr Xanthic, while they are far beneath a ruined but active monastery where two races or ancient and powerful adversaries guard relics both historic and influential.
The Spear is gone, missing, stolen and Xanthic has been summoned to solve the crime by an old acquaintance from his Dark days. But as information comes to light Xanthic wonders why, after all these years he has been asked to attend, he's not noted for this type of work and to his memory he was never that close to the Bishop Armaedies and the debt between them slight at best. So when the stakes are raised for any failure, Valentine begins to dread that maybe this time they've been brought on motives most sinister and they're in this hole far too deep.