Chapter 1
- Meet Theo, a printer's devil in the town of Dorning. No, he doesn't have a pitchfork or anything—this just means he's an apprentice and all-around servant to a printer named Anton. Theo was an orphan, so the people of his town stuck him in a bunch of different apprenticeships, and he ended up being awesome at helping Anton. Business has been bad since Cabbarus, Chief Minister to King Augustine of Westmark, restricted what printers can print, though.
- One day, Anton heads out of the shop when Theo meets a well-dressed little person who calls himself Musket (1.7). Musket gives Theo some papers he wants copies of, and demands a ridiculous deadline. The pamphlets he needs to make copies of are for a mysterious Dr. Absalom.
- Theo gets to work, but when Anton comes back he's upset. They chat and talk about how the king's got to be loco to appoint someone like Cabbarus as his Chief Minister—in fact, His Highness been out of his mind with grief since his only child, Princess Augusta, died.
- Theo's ticked off at Cabbarus's rules, but Anton says he should play nice. Suddenly, soldiers burst into the shop. Dun dun dun…