One alchemist. One trapped soul. And heaps of trouble.

I'm Lou Vitalis, dragon-robber, mobster-killer, end-of-the-world-preventer. Big job titles, and it's hard to fit them on a business card, so most people just know me as "that weird alchemist down the street." And I've got some problems.

There's this angry soul that occasionally takes over my body. I probably could have handled that, but Pandora's Box is slowly opening in my apartment. Also, an Inkslinger is trying to kill me. Yeah, when it rains, it pours. In my case, it hails.

Somehow, it's all connected to my past. Or rather, to my parents' past, and to the day they died. I'll have to dredge up some old memories to figure this out, and I'll have to do it fast. Because now my parents' murderer is after me.