The moon blinked off and on, or so it seemed, but that was an illusion. Blankets of rubble winging across its face like squadrons of witches interrupted its glow. Below, a woman crossed the desert trying to reach a vault, a sheltering place. Even at a late hour, the desert steamed in white-hot fury, but the deviant temperatures weren't limited to this small square of Earth. The planet was suffering heat exhaustion. For more than 800 years Cajetanus Bradan had readied to speak the prophecy of ancient texts accepted as truth by The Initiative, a secret order preparing for the coming of a death star. "Men forget the days of the Destroyer. Only the wise know where it went, and that it will return in the hour of its next coming. I say that hour is now!" What were they willing to do to preserve humanity? Government officials, military strategists, and scientists debate whether to believe a 21st-century Druid shaman. "This should not be a matter of science versus supernatural. Both forces regularly occur together," argues a man of science but also one believing in the reality of shadowed realms. " If we act, humanity may survive. If not, this is where humanity will be buried." A hot-tempered prophetess joins a beleaguered colony in an around-the-clock struggle to live, battling savage hostiles, assaults by natural forces, and dark magic. Dragons and witches and ghosts! Oh my! You can run, you can hide, but, inevitably, the hour comes when you must face your worst fear.