Dara Brighton lives pretty much a 'normal' existence, except that she is confined to a wheelchair. Her father is a world history teacher at the local high school, her mom is more-or-less a housewife, and her older sister who has recently graduated from college.
One evening the family is all together having dinner when there's a knock at the door. The older sister answers and leads back to the dining room a man who claims to know the father. The father is puzzled and clearly doesn't recognize the man. The stranger begins calling the father Demetrios (not his given name) and demanding that he hand over 'The Sword'. Two more strangers, a woman and another, younger man show up and take the family hostage and Dara is knocked from her wheelchair.
As the interrogation of 'Demetrios' goes nowhere, the younger guy is ordered to kill the older sister - which he does by manipulating the water in a nearby glass into a razor-sharp ice crescent and slicing her open. The mother becomes defiant and is killed by the older man when he telekinetically pulls three stones from the nearby fireplace and and tosses them at her with a force that breaks her neck. The father still claims ignorance and the older man orders the female to loosen his tongue, which she does by creating electricity that runs through her hands and jolting him.
Claiming that she believed he could take it, she accidentally overdoes it, fries him and he dies. Her display has also caused the house to begin to burn. As they leave in defeat, the female decides as almost an afterthought that they should kill Dara as well. But before the woman fries the helpless girl, a beam falls from the ceiling and lands right on top of Dara, more or less assured the girl is dead, the woman leaves.
But Dara was only pushed through the floor into a cavity beneath the house, and as she looks in front of her there is a sword sticking in the ground. She touches the hilt and immediately feels a jolt run through her as all of her wounds heal and her legs begin to function again. Ultimately, the sword will do a lot of amazing things.
At her family's funerals, she meets one of her father's former students who tells her of the stories her dad would 'make up' about a swordsman named Demetrios who over 4,000 years ago thwarted 3 individuals who could control elements. Dara uses these second-hand tales to discover the names and locations of these three so she can kill them.
This is some good poo right here.
