Infinity Blade: Awakening

Infinity Blade: Awakening is a novella by Brandon Sanderson that is a tie-in to an iOS game, Infinity Blade (made by Epic Games). Awakening is set between Infinity Blade and Infinity Blade 2. It was released electronically only on October 4, 2011.
== Summary ==
Siris, is the Sacrifice, one of the long line of young men sent to fight the God king, actually succeeds and returns to his village with Infinity blade. However, he is met with fear instead of joy, and ordered to leave the village as soon as possible.
His mother advises him to go on and "do the impossible again", presumably referring to killing the other Deathless.
Meanwhile, Raidriar the God-King is reincarnated in one of his temples. He discovers that his prisoner, the lesser Deathless, has died the final death, which indicates to him that the Infinity Blade is working, though yet not at the full power. He also begins to suspect that Siris is not what he seems to be. He proceeds to monitor Siris's progress through his surveillance network.
Siris approaches the God-kings castle, where he is greeted by surviving Daeril as their lord and master. Suspicious of their motives, he summons them all to the throne room.
He then proceeds to question them about Deathless that he should attack, and how does the Deathless "magic" function. In process, he displays flashes of temper that seem somewhat alien to him. The oldest of the palace's Daeril then explains to him that the castle is not the God-King's main abode, and that it serves only to draw the young warriors seeking to slay the God-king. He also explains that the Deathless are reborn when their bodies are destroyed, unless killed by Infinity Blade. The troll then asks him to stay and fight the deathless that would come for the Infinity Blade as soon as the news reach them, but Siris refuses. As he does, he is attacked from behind by a crossbow bolt. He is wounded by the next bolt, and is forced to use healing ring, that ages him as it heals.
The assassin is then revealed to be a human woman. In addition, two golems arrive to attack him, knocking Infinity Blade from his hand, which is grabbed by the woman, who then proceeds to escape through the window.
However, the fight damages the security system of the palace, giving Siris access, and explaining the function of his transportation ring, which he uses to bring sword back. He then proceeds to dispatch the two golems.
In the meanwhile, the God-King reveals that he was the one resetting security protocols of his castle. He then proceeds to destroy all of the deadmind systems in the castle.
In the castle, the assassin, named Isa, and Siris discuss what to do next. Isa proposes taking the sword and letting Siris return to his farm life, but, after some consideration, he refuses, and Isa proposes that he should hire her.
Siris goes to confront daeril, that he now suspects of treachery, and is attacked by the old troll. As he kills the troll in self-defence, the trolls says that they continue to serve their master, the God-King. Another Daeril confirms that the Infinity Blade doesn't work at full power yet, and so God-King has survived. Siris then leaves the castle with Isa in search of answers.
As they travel, they encounter a group of peasants that go to see the Sacrifice buried, as tradition decrees. He is worried as to what would happen if they find no corpse. After they leave, he proceeds to explain the concept of Sacrifice - a man chosen from his line each generation to fight the God-King to Isa.
After they camp, Siris debates to himself about what he needs to do next. He opens his eyes to see Isa aiming a crossbow at him. He disarms her, experiencing a burst of hatred which he attributes to the influence of the Infinity Blade. He orders Isa to leave, but she asks to stay with him, offering to lead him to one of the Deathless who may know the location of the Keeper of Secrets. They proceed to travel there, with Siris tying Isa down every night. During the trek, Isa points out the location of one of the rebirth chambers of the Deathless.
Later, they hear screams for help, and Siris rushes off to investigate, encountering four daerils attacking a traveller. After dispatching them with Isa's help, eight more came out. Drawing on the memory he didn't know he possessed, Siris defeated the quickly. Isa is badly wounded in the fight, however, the traveller that was attacked is revealed to be a strange creature made out of wood and gemstones, that is able to sew her wound by transforming parts of itself into thread and needles, by touching metal and cloth, correspondingly. It presents itself as TEL, Transubstantive Entity, Lower-class. It also proceeds to explain the underpinnings of the world Siris lives in, though it refused to answer specific questions about Deathless and its orders. Siris is then forced to improvise the power source for one of his rings to create fire for the night. 
After several days to let Isa recover, Siris decided to confront Saydhi's champions. before that, he had deduced that the Infinity Blade might have been activated by him when he killed one of his ancestor in God-King's dungeon. He expresses desire to just live for himself, rather than live hunting down Deathless and the God-king. They then proceed to challenge Saydhi's Daedril, with Isa staying behind to recover the Infinity Blade, if necessary. He kill the guards and the champion with relative ease, and asks Saydhi for her boon of information. She answers that the Worker of Secrets is kept in the Vault of Tear, the place once known as Saranthia, and then proceed to attack Siris with flame, initiating a duel. He defeats her, killing her with Infinity Blade. He then sees an obelisk with an imprint of Infinity Blade on it, and decides to put the blade in it. The blade and the obelisk then disappear, and the God King walks up to Siris, revealing the obelisk to be his trap, shielded from teleportation. he further reveal that he was using the healing ring as a listening device. Raidriar prepared to kill Siris with Infinity Blade, but Isa managed to shoot him in the head first, killing him. This disquieted Raidriar, as he suspected that the bolt was not meant for him, and that somebody knew more about Ausar's nature than they should.
----
Siris awakes in one of the rebirth chambers, realising that he was one of the deathless. Isa is also in the chamber, waiting for him to revive. She said that she had suspected about him being deathless for a while. Siris himself starts to realize that the Dark Thoughts were actually his own blocked memories coming to the surface, and that he hated them. Isa then said that she waited for several weeks for him to regenerate. 
Siris then considers whether to continue pursuing the Worker of Secrets, or to live a free life, as Isa suggests. Isa herself decides to follow the Infinity Blade, and leaves, after Siris asks her to kill him if he were ever to return to his former Deathless self. 
As Siris considers all the lies and changes in his life, TEL comes through the door. Siris realizes that his former self was the one TEL works for, destroying his body to force the rebirth as a child, which he failed to do this time. TEL then reveals that Siris lived many lives as a child, most of the times dying as a Sacrifice, and sometimes growing up and having children. Further, being reborn as a child erased his memories of Ausar, but being reborn in rebirth vats would instead recover some of the memories. In the end, Siris decides to finish what he had began, keep his memories and free the Worker of Secrets.
== Main Characters ==
;Siris:
The Sacrifice. In reality, he is reincarnation of Ausar one of the Deathless, that has lost his memory and is reborn as a child every time he dies.
;Myan:
Mother of Siris.
;Raidriar:
The God-King.
;Kuuth:
The oldest of troll Daeril serving God-King. Put out his own eyes to be seen as cripple and not killed for honor.
;Isaline:
The assassin. Usually called Isa.
;TEL:
Transubstantive Entity, Lower-class. A golem-like creature that can create body from the substances that it touches.
;Saydhi:
One of the Deathless, an information broker.
== Cover Gallery ==
== Notes ==
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