Cast in Chaos

## **Blurb**

Kaylin Neya is a Hawk, part of the elite force tasked with keeping the City of Elantra safe. Her past is dark, her magic uncontrolled and her allies unpredictable. And nothing has prepared her for what is coming, when the charlatans on Elani Street suddenly grow powerful, the Oracles are thrown into an uproar and the skies rain blood….

The powerful of Elantra believe that the mysterious markings on Kaylin's skin hold the answer, and they are not averse to using her—how ever they have to—in order to discover what it is.

Something is coming, breaking through the barriers between the worlds. But is it a threat that Kaylin needs to defend her city against—or has she been chosen for another reason entirely?

## **Plot**

The trouble starts with the office mirrors being extra intrusively helpful, but as Severn and Kaylin walk Elani St the haywire magic becomes increasingly frightening: a cure for baldness actually works, Margot tells a true fortune warning a Barrani High Court lady her father is about to be arrested for embezzlement, blood rain, children born with three eyes or speaking in complete sentences.

The next day, when Kaylin tries to enter Evanton's garden she instead enters an illusion that soon vanishes into grey fog. She calls Nightshade by Name and he opens a hole in the world she dives through just before being caught by a snarling monster. Consulting Tara (the avatar of what is now Tiamaris' tower) in her warded basement pool nearly brings the creature through, before Tiamaris' timely return slams that door. The foggy place is called the Dreamways (later Outlands) by which humans originally came to the planet, and the monster is the Devourer of Words, per the Arkon Lannagaros and Sanabalis.

They visit the Oracle Hall, where mute artist-seer Everly paints a thousand humans coming into Elantra through the Dreamways in four days, though it takes intervention by both Ybelline and Kaylin to figure that out. The Arkon invites the Barrani Lord and Consort to meet (the first such meeting since the second Draco-Barrani war), and both agree they must keep the portal from opening, saving the city but killing all the refugees.

Kaylin finds this unacceptable. She sneaks back into the Arkon's golden lake-mirror to watch Shadow bring about the end of the refugees' world, and where they went afterwards; an idle question results in her being shown the three-dimensional True Name rune of the Dreamways, Elantra, the destroyed world, and gives her the insight that places Devoured have no true name any more. They sneak from the palace and again meet Evanton in his garden, where the Water Elemental says the garden exists here because this is the original world, and the Devourer used to be an elemental (perhaps father of all of them) before they took his name and bound him between worlds.

The Arkon, Sanabalis, and Tiamaris are invited into the garden (the first time dragons have seen the elementals), and with Evanton each take one elemental while Severn and Kaylin enter the Dreamways. She finds the extremely tall refugees, called Norannir, who are convinced to follow her by her runes and ability to communicate with The Traveller when holding his hand. They pass through the portal onto Elani St where the Hawks and Swords are waiting for them. They are pursued by the Dreamways monster, and Kaylin lets herself be swallowed by the Devourer. From within his tornado-like form, she renames them Maker and convinces them that she exists with her own eternal True Name (even if it doesn't define her essence like for the immortal races), sense of home; the deciding factor in this argument is the love and laughter of Severn. She guides Devourer into Elani St, Evanton's shop, and finally the garden, where the Elementals welcome him home.

Back on the street, she convinces the Hawks to not attack the heavily armed and towering refugees, then convinces the dragons to submit to be scanned for shadow possession with the Norannir's magical drums . Having established that much trust, Tiamaris offers his fief as their new home, and their leader Mejrah cuts her hand to make a blood-pact of peace.

## List of Characters

1. Kaylin
2. Tanner
3. Gillas
4. Severn
5. Teela
6. Caitlin
7. Marcus
8. Margot
9. Alyssa Larienne
10. Grethan
11. Evanton
12. Grammayre
13. Sanabalis
14. Master Sabrai
15. Sigrenne
16. Everly
17. Tain
18. Lannagaros
19. Marya
20. Nightshade
21. Andellen
22. Tara
23. Morse
24. Tiamaris
25. Vakillirae
26. Ybelline Rabon'alani
27. Consort
28. High Lord
29. Enkerrikas
30. Kallinda
31. Diarmat
32. Scoros
33. Effaron
34. Mejrah
35. Emmerian