Annabelle Raveastre is a knight of Highwyn. She travels the country on assignments from the crown, lending her skills to communities that are too small to employ their own host of knights. She finds herself in Essmore on the trail of an arsonist. Annabelle thinks that Essmore is a miserable little town and finds that its cowering townsfolk want nothing to do with her. Her reputation for violence as a means to an end leaves for a civilian population...