Riven is ready to renounce his life as a rural mercenary and join the Enforcers when he is approached by his childhood best friend, Miri, with a job offer. Now an expert at interpreting the glyphs of the extinct magical beings known as Shadows, Miri asks Riven to accompany her and her fellow Archivists to an ancient temple in hopes of recovering valuable artefacts.

Believing the simple protection contract will provide him extra money and a chance to spend time with the only woman he has ever loved, Riven accepts. After all, the Enforcers will still be there when he returns. But the job is not as simple as Miri or Riven first believed and they run into trouble when they unintentionally release an ancient and powerful magic.

Forced to forge a symbiotic bond with an imprisoned Shadow to save his own life, Riven soon learns there is more to the world than he could have imagined, and that Miri is not the woman he thought she was...