Cast in Eternity

## **Blurb**

**KEEP YOUR FRIENDS CLOSE, AND YOUR ENEMIES CLOSER**

**Dead men tell no tales**

When Corporal Kaylin Neya is assigned front desk duty—a task hated by every Hawk—the only thing she can look forward to besides an endless stream of complaints is visits from a dotty old woman, because she always brings baked goods along with information passed on by her friends, who happen to be ghosts no one else can see. But then the old woman’s invisible friends have news about Severn Handred: his unusual weapon has caught their attention. Concerned, Kaylin accompanies the woman home because she has a few questions to ask these so-called ghosts.

Sadly, Kaylin can also see them. And she can see other spirits in the woman’s house as well—four children who’ve been trapped there for decades. When Kaylin looks into the deaths in the records at the Halls of Law, something doesn’t add up. Factor in a building that isn’t supposed to exist, and nothing makes sense. But Kaylin is a Hawk, and she’s determined to free the trapped ghosts of the children, even if she’s suddenly landed in the middle of the bad kind of Barrani history. Someone doesn’t want the past to be uncovered, and they’re perfectly willing to destroy Kaylin if it preserves the secrets of the dead…

## **Plot**

The lonely old lady Imelda Erickson makes one of her frequent unmotivated visits to the Hawks while Kaylin is manning the front desk. Mrs. Erickson vaguely recognizes her as Severn's partner, and asks why his belt has magic that frightens her ghosts. This draws Kaylin's attention away from the baked goods Mrs Erickson customarily brings the officers; further questioning convinces Kaylin to visit her house. Through Hope's wing, she converses with dimensionally-shifted teens Amaldi and Darreno before even reaching her house, and what appear to be the ghosts of four other children inside. She also immediately suspects Mrs Erickson's neighbor Brennan Oswald of an assault two years ago when she broke her hip "falling down the stairs", and bullying her ever since.

A search of records reveals the four children all became serial murderers later in life and were executed decades apart (where data is available, always four victims, and ritualized). Also, Mrs. Erickson's house at 14 1/2 Orbonne St is partially over the site of a house owned by the exceptionally gifted young Barrani scholar Azoria Berranin. As Kaylin begins investigating this woman, her name alone is enough to alarm Teela, Sedarias, and cause arguments to break out among the Arbiters at the Academia, where she was a student over a thousand years ago before it fell to shadow. She was believed long dead, but events are making it clear she is not. Starrante and Bakkon reluctantly reveal that the Wevaren gain immortality by consuming their nest mates, thus assembling a complete True Name from the fragments held by each spiderling; Starrante had shared this information with Azoria, and suspects she used it to gain advanced portal magic, but would have had to enter Ravellon to do so.

Kaylin takes Mrs Erickson to Arkon Sanabalis to be re-tested for magical ability; around the altar in the Imperial Library, a giant glow comes from the god-blood water and possesses him. Kaylin and Mrs Erickson, from within the protection of the Marks of the Chosen cocoon, coax two True Runes out of the Arkon and into her hands, releasing him from thrall. This reveals that Mrs Erickson has substantial necromantic abilities, not something usually tested for, but a gift that should have made her wealthy her entire life. Kaylin takes the excited and powerful runes home to Helen who provides rooms for them, and then walks Mrs Erickson home with Teela. On the front lawn, Oswald begs Teela's forgiveness for losing her treasure, confusing her with another Barrani woman. While Mrs Erickson makes cookies, they investigate the house, finding a portrait of 11-year-old Erickson with a flower in her hair from The Green, painted by Azoria herself.

Kaylin and Teela visit the Consort in her garden within the new High Halls. She tells them Azoria accidently killed her sister, and tried to eat words from the Lake of Names to resurrect her; she failed, but was corrupted by the attempt. The High Halls' Avatar takes all three to the door to Azoria's old quarters; Terrano and Serralyn teleport in, identifying the ornate flower on the door as an elaborate and powerful trap, which the High Halls' Avatar and Adversary work together to unravel. Inside is a portrait gallery of trapped souls; the Avatar destroys all of them except those of Azoria's slaves Amaldi and Darreno.

Back at 14 1/2 Orbonne St, Kaylin asks Serralyn to anchor a portal for Bakkon to teleport in without alarming bystanding Elantrans; he cannot enter the house, but advises them on how to enter the displaced/overlapping 14 Orbonne St. The child ghosts suddenly vanish. Inside Azoria's shifted house, they find another gallery of soul-trapped portraits, including Azoria's self-portrait. With Spike, Terrano, and Sedarias' help, Kaylin retrieves the children, but allows Azoria to phase into their space. While the others hold her off, she enters the Outlands with Terrano and Spike, who assumes dragon-form and flies her to an oddly-shaped stone building. She realizes the building is shaped like an enormous, incomplete rune; she finds a part of the stone that is fleshy and stabs it. Golden blood pours out, and when she uses her own magic to heal it, is pulled deep inside the structure to find a giant being whose scabbed wounds form the stone of the building. Expending huge amounts of energy, she awakens and heals the young Death God, who emerges from the rune as a humanoid giant with Tha'alani stalks and Aerian wings. They explains their role as bringing life through death, saying their blood fills the Lake of Names. Spike flies Kaylin to a similar lake nearby, where she uses her Chosen powers to retrieve a grey rune: Azoria's true name deadened by her death, crimes, and being removed from the words comprising the Lake's "novel" that makes up the race "story". The god refuses to help kill, but Kaylin returns to 14 Orbonne St and instead heals the rune, binding Azoria to her own (dead) body, which necromancer Mrs Erickson places under compulsion. She forces her to free the painting-trapped souls, and all the ghosts except Jamal. He insists on a promise from Kaylin that she will look after Mrs Erickson, then accompanies them to Helen to inspect Mrs Erickson's new rooms. Helen creates a perfect woodland glade and cottage, making Mrs Erickson weep with joy and allowing Jamal to go on in peace.

## List of Characters

1. Kaylin
2. Imelda Erickson
3. Hope
4. Marcus
5. Caitlin
6. Amaldi
7. Darreno
8. Severn
9. Brennan Oswald wife Alisa/Annalisa
10. Jamal Rayan
11. Callis Creekson
12. Katie Holdern
13. Esmeralda Noachin
14. Bridget Keele
15. Teela
16. Sanabalis
17. Ynpharion
18. Helen
19. Mandoran
20. Terrano
21. Serralyn
22. Matilda
23. Lannagaros
24. Killianas
25. Starrante
26. Androsse
27. Kavallac
28. Bakkon
29. Larrantin
30. Sedarias
31. Allaron
32. Torrisant
33. Fallessian
34. Karian
35. Consort
36. Avatar high halls
37. Shadow of High Halls
38. Spike
39. Azoria Berranin
40. Death God