An expedition to remote mountains is going to be the experience young Adal needs to qualify for Haarden University. Unfortunately, her grandmother's old house from whence she and her father are commencing folkloristic studies hides old and alien secrets, the likes of which Adal has never even dreamed of. And what is that red stranger scurrying about in the shadows? ...And in a land shrouded in eternal darkness a youngling rises to meet their own destiny. How will these events entangle?