When Giles Deschain, the young sentinel of a local militia, discovers evidence of the malicious demon spice in his hometown, he embarks on a quest for truth and justice. The longer Giles searches, however, the more volatile and unpredictable he becomes, and as he inches closer to exposing the rats that live in the walls, his compulsion for someone to blame begins to endanger every single person he once hoped to protect. Both thrilling and heartbreaking, Strife is a novella of obsession manifest in many forms.