It’s dark and foul in the sewers of Mazu, capital city of the Island of Mazu. The wide, slimy tunnels that were originally constructed to spew excess water deposited by the Stormphoenix back into the Middle Sea now house an elite team of magi, readying themselves for a near suicidal assault on the impenetrable castle known simply as the Gray Keep. Amongst them John Michael Williams and Lilith Smith, two Drifters from Earth, sit side by side in the muck, wondering how the twists and turns of their very different lives brought them together in this frightening new world called Nocht.