Full Description
Kraj is still a young, unexplored world. Here sailors are hopeful, merchants are jubilant, and the aspiring scholars of each realm are still teething on what information they can clasp from beyond their borders. Yet for all its promise, Kraj also hosts a forgotten anomaly who withers in hidden confinement.
In the sunken heart of an ever-blue forest, an ageless creature is stirred from its perpetual sleep-walk. Cloud-cursed and without memory, 'Lu' is invited by a sorceress to leave his bloomy abode in pursuit of the River Sprite Tlephilisse on the radiant Lila isle. In exchange for recollection and freedom, Lu is instructed to befriend, but ultimately assassinate this innocent creature. After encountering the sprite, and with his first taste of the outside world, Lu's allegience falls into question, and a greater adventure calls from beyond Empryc's tropic coasts. Against the orders of his Mistress, Lu concludes that it is time to think for himself.
Equipped with the enigmatic glass-blade Umbra, Lu finds himself faced with otherworldly demons, befriending an enormous lavender fox, and being welcomed into a cult that dwells exclusively in a place of eternal dawn. An amorphous evil shifts beyond the visible horizon, but those most familiar with it are the very same who offer the least explanation. One thing, however, remains clear: no matter how far Lu strays, it seems that he cannot escape the will of his awakener.
Contents
Pre-introduction vii
Introduction ix
Part One 1
The Mistress of the Bhia 1
2 A Dream Aside the Vacant Pond 9
3 A Suit, Sabre, and Sacrifice 16
4 Tlephilisse, the River Sprite 37
5 A Visitor 46
Part Two
1 First Impressions 57
2 A Day of Language 66
3 Familiar Fruits 77
4 The Living Lila 92
5 Gratitude 109
6 Night of the Red Moon 122
7 Cloudburst, and That which Followed 141
Part Three
1 Inheritor of the Isle 159
2 Port Awreia 177
3 Bandits of the Mire 188
4 Vanities of Progress 195
5 Daleia-Dal 208
6 Voanmjur 219
7 Den of Dawns 238
8 Awreia Goes Awry 250
9 Luminary 269
10 Starheads in the Realm of Night 283
Epilogue 304
