​Moondark Manor was gloomy and sinister. There were neither flowering shrubs nor plants to soften the stark grey granite or add a little cheerful colour to please the eye and make it more inviting. This was a house of mysterious comings and goings, a place of deep shadows that offered not the slightest welcome to either visitors or travellers, but then, that is exactly what its residents wanted. The smaller buildings surrounding the main house, formed a compound built from the same sombre stone, tucked away, isolated and secure within one of the many mountainous and wooded regions of Albon.