Christoph Gildenson was a simple farm boy in a simple village. The Protharian Empire was little more than a whispering river, fields of golden wheat, rose beds and a small village of proper people. He dreams of those days often. Slipping into the shallow mediation of a motionless lich. He recalls the memories as one might see their life pass before their eyes as they die; continuously as if the gods grant him this minute reprieve from his world of monsters and trials. Christoph, in the body of King Gohdin, rules over Surton Spire with an iron fist. While he trains and commands his monstrous forces, he doubles as a gate by which he might restrain his hordes from slaughtering humanity. Now, however, his kingdom has been discovered. As the empire sends out investigators to the recently massacred town of Carmoss, they find a trail leading back to an empty and horrific mountain. Knowing not what lies beneath, mankind does as they always have. They pick a fight. Hear the tale of Christoph balancing the three minds of human, lich, and dragonkin. In this second book of the "Life, Death, and Fire" series, witness the clash of man and monster.