Cast in Honor

## **Blurb**

*In the aftermath of a vicious battle between darkness and light, the city of Elantra has emerged victorious. But Shadows continue to haunt every corner of its streets…*

Elantra stands strong, but countless numbers of Hawks, the city's staunchest protectors, were lost in the brutal attack. Humans, Barrani, Aerians, Leontines—none of the races emerged unscathed from the defense of the city. Homes were lost, families were scattered…and the outcast Barrani Lord Nightshade is missing from his castle in the fiefs.
Yet as the chaos surrounding the battle begins to wane, Private Kaylin Neya's duties must resume, despite her grief. Called in to investigate a triple murder in a quiet part of town, Kaylin and her companions are soon embroiled in a case that is anything but routine. Evidence of the deadly Shadows that still threaten the city leads to hints of ancient, forgotten magics…and everything can be traced directly to Ravellon, the heart of the Shadows and the darkness they contain.

But it is there that Lord Nightshade will be found—if he still survives.

## **Plot**

Kaylin loves living in Helen, but finds Annarion and Mandoran's arguments over how to find Nightshade trying. After leaning hard on the injured infirmary matron Moran to live with them until recovered, she and Bellusdeo go to investigate a triple homicide on Winding Path, only to find a shadow-trail going to the house across the street. There, they find a confused but benign shadow-man Gilbert, and 10-year-old girl Kattea who he both rescued from Nightshade, and brought back in time about seven years. In the murder house, the bodies in the newly-constructed basement are invisible through the Hope's dragon wing, and also "suspended" rather than dead.

Returning the next day, Gilbert has been injured in a fight he has no memory of with the three murder victims; their bodies are still in the basement but rearranged and with mystic stones placed by their heads. Kaylin nearly dies "healing" Gilbert, which involves closing hundreds of disembodied eyes around him, and transferring the True Word from her forehead to his. It takes two days for her to recover.

Suspecting water elementals are at work (since Kattea suggests one brought her and Gilbert through time), Kaylin goes to talk to Evanton. His shop is flooded by rain inside the public storefront, not just the garden. Kaylin asks Ybelline for help, and her contact with the elemental and the Tha'alaan suggests a disaster is about to wipe out the Tha'alani Quarter and most of the city proper.

Called back to the crime scene, Kaylin finds a cylinder of reality containing the murder house and Gilbert's vanished, with Teela in it. When Evanton's garden vanishes in the same way, with the help of the Arkon Lannagaros, Kaylin enters Gilbert's space outside of time where chaotic shadow force grants actors in time free will. Here, she can again hear Nightshade and manages to alter the timeline to save the city, but destroys this version of Kattea, who will no longer grow up orphaned in a city-less fief. It is never clear which arcanist started the problem, but Kaylin is able to draw on all her friends' True Names to speak the words into being that restore balance in the garden.

Kattea meets her father (who is only injured in the confusion, rather than killed in the cataclysm), and Helen creates a transdimensional dungeon for Gilbert in the basement where he comes to visit. The two decide to go exploring hyperdimensional space-time together.

## List of Characters

1. Hope
2. Kaylin
3. Helen
4. Mandoran
5. Annarion
6. Bellusdeo
7. Clint
8. Tanner
9. Moran
10. Marcus
11. Caitlin
12. Severn
13. Teela
14. Tain
15. Gilbert
16. Kattea
17. Lianne
18. Gavin
19. Grethan
20. Evanton
21. Hanson
22. Dariandaros
23. Lannagaros
24. Morgrim
25. Emmerian
26. Ybelline Rabon'alani
27. Draalzyn
28. Scoros
29. Perenne
30. Shojii
31. Grammayre
32. Quartermaster
33. Nightshade
34. Sanabalis
35. Maggaron
36. High Lord
37. Ynpharion
38. Lirienne
39. Kayala
40. Jared
41. Krevel