Sapphire's Flight

## Plot Description

It has been three years since the end of *Aina's Breath*, and every faction is hard at work to locate the creature some call Jaeth's Eye, others call Rysaran's Dragon.

## Prologue

In the opening scene, Princess Tiora of Gentigen--a city now called Lon Basden by the Dageians--meets with her brother Jaeth. Soon after, they are attacked by the Dageians.

## Baidh

Kefier, still working as Commander of the Boarshind for Yn Garr Industries, is sent to Baidh to retrieve books from a run-down mansion. They are taken from him by the mage Kastor rog-Bannal. On the way back to the mainland, they are intercepted by a Dageian ship, who had received reports of an escaped slave on board. While attempting to flee his would-be captors, Kefier breaks into their ship and seizes it in the name of the Boarshind. He orders the ship to sail north, into the no-man's land of the Orasmus Peninsula, past Hafod's borders.

The ship is wrecked off the coast, forcing Kefier and his companions on foot. Along the way, he has a chance to speak with the villagers and recognizes one as Ailat, a girl he married in his teens. Fighting over Ailat's affections had caused the rift between him and Enosh in the first place.

They seek shelter in a house Kefier had built in the wilderness. In the meantime, he goes through the remaining journal he was able to save from Bannal, and learns that Enosh is not a half-brother, as he had been led to believe. That their mother, in fact, was the same half-Baidhan woman Soshain, making them both bastards. Enosh's father had passed him off as the son of his first wife, who died in Baidh chasing after him while he was a ward at Duke Lahrin's mansion, in order to legitimize him in their people's eyes.

## Jin-Sayeng

Sume reunites with Tetsung alon gar Shoho, an heir of one of the rice lords of Sougen, for information pertaining another missing member of the rice lord clans, a certain Hirong Sethi. During their meeting, they are attacked by Arn, who had been tailing Sume.

Arn kills Tetsung before forcing Sume to continue with her plans, with him. They find Hirong Sethi--in truth, a woman named Hira alon gar Sethi--who finds them a way through the north-eastern mountains. Sume is convinced Rysaran, if he is alive, is hiding there somewhere.

In a temple city owned by the Ikessars, Sume meets Rysaran's sisters Ran, Roa, and Ryia. She notices Ryia acting strangely and follows her all the way to a cave, where she's been hiding her brother Rysaran. The years spent with the creature has taken its toll on the Dragonlord, and he is a gaunt, mad shell of the man he once was.

Arn calls for reinforcements; in the meantime, Enosh and Sapphire arrive. Ryia and her sisters decide to put their brother out of his misery; Sume volunteers.

## Gaspar

Prior to meeting up with Sume in the mountains, Enosh and Sapphire makes a trip to Gaspar. He meets with his old associate, Burg, whom he learns had been paid to assassinate the king of Gaspar to frame him. He learns that Reema, Enosh's wife, is making her own motions to seize control of the state of Barun from her father Azchai and that she ultimately was the one who killed the king.

Enosh is captured by his wife, who wants his assets and is willing to use their son--the by-product of their brief union--to claim them. He pretends to agree when he realizes that Reema is willing to hurt the child to get what she wants. He is allowed to return to Jin-Sayeng, where he receives a letter Sume sent weeks ago, telling him her whereabouts.

## The Orasumus Peninsula

Kefier returns to Hafod to continue with his duties as Commander of the Boarshind. The Hafed nobles are mobilizing their troops to attack Dageis, and the Boarshind mercenaries are coming along to lead the attack.

Their first target is Fort Oras, which cuts through the middle of the Orasmus Peninsula. Kefir scouts ahead with Ailat, where a dire situation has him confessing his claustrophobia, after-effects of the time he spent as a slave in Dageis. Ailat is dismissive of his experiences, reminding him they've all suffered under the Dageians.

They return to camp, which is attacked by the undead in the middle of the night--skeletons from those who fell centuries ago when Dageis came to conquer the Gorenten. Kefier manages to find the mages responsible for reviving them, but in the meantime the Gorenten leaders are at each others' throats.

They finally mobilize for an attack on the walls. The Boarshind mercenaries serve as fodder and are obliterated right at the gates. Kefier manages to hide from their arrows, only to realize that the Hafed lords have turned away and were leaving them on their own. The mercenaries find themselves trapped right outside the walls, just waiting for daylight to come so the Dageins could finish them.

Mages at the wall continue to assault them by raising the dead on the battlefield. Kefier decides to end it all by sneaking through one of the cracks the trebuchets made, fighting his way to the gates, and unlock it. Although the plan seems like suicide, the other mercenaries don't see another choice, and agree.

## Jin-Sayeng

Rysaran's body is burnt in a pyre. However, Sume realizes that the sisters, looking for someone to blame, is about to have her tried for the crime of his death and that they are effectively the Ikessars' prisoners. Enosh decides to call Jarche for help, knowing she will bring Yn Garr's men straight into the compound.

They attack that night, just as he predicted, with their army taking the form of animated dolls, stuffed with straw. The person responsible for controlling them is none other than Enosh's daughter Rosha, whom he meets for the first time. He notes that Rosha's expression reminds him a bit of Kefier before imploring Sapphire and Sume to take her to safety. In the meantime, Yn Garr and Jarche arrive to seize Jaeth's Eye from the cave.

The creature taxes even Jarche's skills, but the last few years it has spent with Rysaran has also weakened it. She spots a sword that Rysaran has left in the creature's back in his own attempts to subdue it. She deduces that he has been trying to use the dragon-towers in the mountains to control the creature, as they used to back when Jin-Sayeng rode dragons, who are creatures of the *agan*.

Enosh returns to his family and argues with Rosha, who alerts Jarche of her location. They are beset with Arn's assassins.

They manage to escape to Gaspar, only to be captured by Reema once again. Reema is furious, as Hertra Ylir yn Ferral's bank accounts have all been drained before she could get to it. Sapphire deflects the situation by reminding Enosh he still has one asset left: the ship *Aina's Breath.* He agrees to turn it over to Reema.

Later, Reema encounters Rosha and her son in the halls, and attempts to kill Rosha, knowing she poses a threat to her son's future. She locks Rosha in a closet, where Rosha once again tries to call on Jarche.

Jarche, who has just extracted Jaeth's Eye from Jin-Sayeng, arrives with the not-dragon. She clambers down just as Rosha demands an answer about who her father truly is. Jarche tells her the truth, and says that Kefier is in trouble. Rosha takes control of the creature and implores it to help save Kefier. She rides it west, straight to Fort Oras.

## The Orasumus Peninsula

Rosha arrives just as Kefier makes his way to the wall. The creatures smashes against it, breaking the wall. Arn arrives with Farg's Fang--another part of Naijwa's Beast that they found in Shi-uin--and allows Jaeth's Eye to absorb it. The now more-powerful creature destroys part of the wall. It also throws Rosha into the sea. The mercenaries are able to break their way into the fort, and are swiftly followed by the Hafed lords, who have been watching and waiting all this time.

Kefier cares only about finding Rosha, but doesn't see her body. In the midst of his grief, he stumbles on the sight of Yn Garr killing the king of Hafod. He tells Kefier he is Agartes Allaicras, hero of the Kag, whose family was slaughtered by Dageians over a hundred years ago. He had been keeping himself alive with Jarche's help and his own connection to the *again,* and that everything he has done is for vengeance. He begins by obliterating the Hafed king's line and taking the throne for his own, as was his right years ago.

Kefier, wanting nothing to do with this vengeance, returns to the house he built. There, he reunites with Enosh and Sume, who have found their way there by tracing the activities of Enosh's accounts over the last few years. It was Kefier who drained them while building the house.

He also reunites with Rosha, who was saved with the intervention of Mahe Amiren, one of the Dageian leaders at Fort Oras and who loses the child in her belly in exchange.

After a tense meeting, Yn Garr's men catch up to them. Enosh hands Rosha over, knowing it is useless to argue. Kefier returns and is beaten and imprisoned for his insolence. During this time, he learns that Sume's nephew Dai has been harbouring the soul of Agartes' son, Myar, for the past few years. This "soul takeover" interests Yn Garr--the process occurred because Myar's soul has been with Yn Garr, and the process of killing mages at Enji Lake nearly ten years ago threw enough energy in the atmosphere to foster the transfer in the first place. He thinks that if he can slaughter an entire Dageian city, he can recreate it and put Vayna inside of Rosha.

Everyone begins to piece together just how twisted Yn Garr's mind has become. His mansion in Cael is a recreation of the one that was burnt down, where his family had lived; he had even made rooms for every child as if they were still alive. Arn, for example, thinks Yn Garr's interest in him is because he displays the same taste for music as Agartes' son Aldeti.

Yn Garr turns to mobilize his army and attack Lon Basden, a Dageian city at the northern tip of the peninsula. Lon Basden had been the Gorenten city "Gentigen" in the past. He uses the creature, controlled by Rosha, to crush Lon Basden's defenses. Tribune Mahe calls for a retreat. The city falls, but Yn Garr doesn't care about it; his sights are on the Dageian city Drusgaya.

## Drusgaya

The city steels itself for Yn Garr's attack, which comes in the form of new mercenaries--not the Boarshind--coming straight from the sea.

Kefier and Enosh's family troubles hit an apex as Kastor rog-Bannal reveals that they are Yn Garr's grandsons through their mother.

Still reeling with the knowledge, they finally catch up to the fighting. Sume kills Arn's griffin. Enosh watches as Sapphire seizes control of Rysaran's dragon, and takes it to be destroyed. Killing the creature would cause a huge rift in the *agan* fabric that could potentially destroy everything around it, so she attempts to ride it all the way south, to the mountains. She uses Rysaran's sword stuck between its scales to channel what's left of her energy and ends its life--and hers--somewhere northwest of the Sougen in Jin-Sayeng.

Kefier fights Yn Garr, who has killed Jarche and is still attempting to force his daughter Vayna's soul into Rosha. Rosha momentarily gives Vayna control of her body. Vayna tells her father everyone has moved on, but *she* will wait for him.

Enosh decapitates Yn Garr with a sword.

Later, he marries Sume with Ceres rog-Bannal as the stand-in, while Sume resumes her relationship with Kefier. On the day of their wedding, Ryia Ikessar arrives bearing news from Jin-Sayeng...Warlord Yeshin has declared war.