To some, the death stone looks like a normal, innocuous, black pebble, smoothed and shined over the years of hiding out in people's pockets, but you're as likely to die from seeing it as from the undead that stalk the world. No one knows where the death stone came from, other than the similarly looking stone that sits upon the chest of the king. For the life stone, sister of the death stone, is as old and, arguably, as powerful.
When Griffin decided to align with the death stone, rather than throwing it in the World Forge at the center of the warzone, Annette is left alone as she struggles to find a way forward. The royals of the realm are as likely to see her hanged as to help her, and when the war arrives on the realm's doorstep, the battle is quite one-sided in the undead's favor. The only hope that Annette finds is in the life stone and a promise of a possible future in the east.