Meg Langslow is plying her blacksmith's trade at Caerphilly Days. The lender has foreclosed on all Caerphilly's public buildings, and all employees have evacuated - except one. Phineas Throckmorton, town clerk, has been barricaded in the courthouse basement for over a year. But the lender seems increasingly determined to evict him, and may succeed after one of its executives is found shot, apparently from inside the basement.

"India's study into the language of spells is interrupted by the arrest of her teacher for an unpaid debt. Before Matt can repay it for him, the powerful magician escapes from his prison cell. To make matters worse, the moneylender is murdered and the magician is implicated. Convinced of his innocence, India and Matt must discover who really killed the moneylender before the police find the magician. Their investigation leads them down a path littered...

Heinrich Faust desires enlightenment. He seeks to understand the very nature of life and how the world goes round. Driven by his thirst for knowledge, he unearths corpses and rummages in their guts in search of the soul. He soon meets the racketeer Mauricius, who takes him to the twilight zones of their small town. In a bath house, his attention is caught by the young Margarete, also known as "Gretchen". Later, the two new friends are entangled in...