There is a legend in the world that tells of a weapon sought after by only the most wicked of souls. Passed down through the years since before the coming of the gods, it grants its master the power to conquer and rule. The Rune Breaker. After decades of dormancy, it just found a new master in Taylin, an escaped slave, who stumbled upon its resting place and found it bound to her will. But as it happens, the Rune Breaker is really a person: the shapeshifting master and dark mage, Ru Brakar, who has been cursed to serve whoever finds him since prehistory. Taylin refuses to keep a slave, but an accidental order to Ru lands them both flung far into the future, where they must rely on one another and their new allies to brave a world alien to both of them and the attentions of a foe who stalks them in hopes of gaining access to a power beyond the gods.