With the help of Esmerelda and her companions, Marco is reunited with his family, who are at Despairia. They discover that the city has well earned its reputation for at least one hundred years. They also meet a paladin who is a healer, but to help Cyrillus with his affliction, they must wait until the next full moon.

In the meantime, he is infatuated with the leader of an order called “The Light Bringers,” who have sent him on a quest to obtain the “Mirror of Time” at an event called “Moon Shadow.” The paladin's name is Artemis and he has agreed to take on the quest as a token of bravery and fealty so that he might be inducted into their ranks. This quest was given to him when he failed to bring back a magical emerald of inestimable worth from a dragons den and in the process, lost his sword, “Dragon's Bane”.

He hopes to redeem himself and is also searching for both when he meets Esmerelda. She is able to inform him about the gem but since it has been re-purposed into the rod, it presents another obstacle to him. When he learns about the fate of Dragon's Bane falling into a demon's hands, he is almost overwhelmed.

Esmerelda and her friends agree to assist Artemis in his quest if he will relieve Cyrillus from his curse. As they begin, they learn that Moon Shadow is not a solar eclipse, as thought by Artemis, but a supernatural lunar event that occurs at the Throne of the Titans on top of a mountain guarded by goblins. In order to reach that mountain, they must travel through three dangerous zones in three days. They chide Artemis and suggest that the order is sending him on impossible missions just to get him out of their hair which his pride will not let him accept.