Plot Summary
The story begins when Jonas Faulkner is found unconscious with two gunshot wounds in the woods outside the small town of Esk. He is nursed back to health by Anya Katsukova, a doctor-in-training, and the two became friends. Around the same time Jonas arrives, however, a supernatural plague begins to affect the town of Esk, killing several of its inhabitants. In the meantime, Robyn Hart, a former soldier who holds unreciprocated romantic feelings for Anya, begins seeing ghostly apparitions around the town.
During a ride in the forest, Jonas, Anya, Robyn, and their friend Petria encounter a "spirit," one of the beings from the ancient past who have been imprisoned for many centuries before the events of the story take place. Upon returning to the village, they are interrogated by an investigator from another city, Patrick Armand, who has been following Jonas since he was released from a mental hospital. Armand reveals that the plague in Esk had also befallen every other town Jonas had been through.
While working with her superior, Doctor Blythe, to find a cure for the spreading plague, Anya is visited again by a spirit. That night, she encounters a "shade", a monstrous manifestation of a person who has died a traumatic death, and the next morning, the plague has spread to a large number of people. Doctor Blythe sends Anya on an urgent mission to the medical research committee in Aubeny with data they have collected on the plague, to try to find a solution. However, the medical committee in Aubeny is indifferent to her findings, attributing the plague to food contamination instead, based on the reports of the same plague from another town. She is dismissed outright when she mentions the shades.
Meanwhile, back in Esk, Robyn is attacked by a shade one night. He determines to fight back as the plague continues to spread and more shades appear, attacking the priest and threatening to overrun the town. A messenger is sent overnight on horseback to bring help to the escalating situation.
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