Six hundred years after a fifteenth century scryer gains the alchemical knowledge to create a dark future in his own image, Addison Shaw inherits a destiny to fight this ancient war threatening all he loves with extinction.

Using an alchemical pen, he writes himself into past lives, leaving his body in the present. Upon completion of his mission, he must die in order to break the link and return home. While his enemy, Kairos, plays a three-dimensional chess game across the centuries, with each ‘Inking’, Addison’s world shifts further into chaos.

From ancient Alexandria to modern Tokyo, Addison and his fellow Inker, Jules, battle against Kairos’ machinations.

After Jules is murdered in the present and her consciousness trapped in an Inca princess five hundred years in the past, Addison, alone and close to defeat, discovers the only way to save his world might be to destroy it.