re lies locked in a hidden temple the Orb of Desire, a magical talisman capable of granting its possessor a single wish. The Dark Lord Zage Batur wants to use it to wipe out the human race, and the great hero Cornelius Arcind wants to stop him, using the artifact instead to finally kill his longtime nemesis. But this is not the focus of the story. Instead, it's an immortal oracle named Dekkin Eterden, whose centuries-long life of loss has left him suicidal but who has enough of a sense of honor not to kill himself. Instead, he resolves to steal the map and key needed to get the Orb and take the vaunted mystical object for himself, to wish that he had never been born. Along the way on his quest, however, he finds a mostly unwilling member of a traveling party, made up of the most unusual members--Cornelius's apprentice, Matthew; the queen of the humans; and even the Dark Lord himself. Their journey together just might show Dekkin that, although he's survived for hundreds of years, he spent precious little time truly living.