With his family under an Edict of Death from a Demon army if he doesn’t surrender to their demands, young Jarnolen Thay rushes desperately to the Sanctuary of the Western Conservator, Argyn, to beg his aid. With him he carries the artifact the Demons the family heirloom called Morathil, or Demonslicer, a transparent sword made from a data crystal given to the Thays by the first colonists of Landfall. The Demons will stop at nothing to obtain Morathil, including mass murder—for they have managed to rebuild an ancient computer and are eager to regain contact with Earth, using the data encoded on the crystal. They claim it will benefit all Humans, from Demon and Firstkin to Alfar and Sprite, Romja and Fae. But as everyone knows, Demons aren’t exactly the most trustworthy of races…