For as long as the Marked have been outlawed, following the banning of magic by King Gorat, there have been the hunters: men willing to track down and kill or capture the rogue spellcasters who manage to escape the King's justice. While well-compensated for the exceedingly dangerous work of finding and confronting men and women who are both desperate and have access to powers that make them more deadly than the most vicious of wild animals, few are willing to take up the career unless driven by a higher calling. Chief among the hunters is Graeson Ashwood, a man nearly as legendary as the king whose decree created the profession. For every Marked captured by all his fellow hunters, Graeson will capture ten. Whereas the more successful hunters are wealthy, Graeson has earned more than he could spend in ten lifetimes. Yet, it is not the desire for money that seems to drive the man, according to those few who have been able to get to know him in even the superficial of ways. Something deeper keeps the man traveling from kingdom to kingdom, his strange weapon never far from his grasp, his manner always searching, always seeking, always hunting.