Some months prior, Gen was jailed in Sounis for stealing the king’s seal, which he bragged about in public. Still a prisoner, Gen passes the time by thinking about what went wrong and promises himself that, if he gets out alive, he will never again take such risks. One day, the magus, or king’s advisor, offers Gen a proposition. If he helps steal Hamiathes’s Gift—a mythical stone with the power to bestow immortality—from the neighboring kingdom of Attolia, he will be set free.

Eager to win his freedom—and certain of his ability to escape even if he doesn’t steal the object—Gen agrees, confident until the magus reveals a chest full of gold that will be the reward for Gen’s capture if he fails. One piece of gold is enough to make most rich, and Gen’s hopes of escape plummet with the realization that he would be chased after by many for such a reward.

Gen, the magus, a soldier named Pol, and two of the magus’s apprentices. Ambiades and Sophos, whom Gen nicknames Useless the Elder and Useless the Younger, set out the next day.