Harp of Winds

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Long ago, there had been four great magical weapons fashioned to be used only by the Magefolk, But their history had been lost, together with the artifacts themselves, in the Cataclysm, the horrific wars of magic which had wrought changes on land and water alike. Lost also had been the history of the non-human Magefolk: the Winged Ones, the Dragonfolk and the mighty Leviathan—or so said the ancient legends.

Young Aurian, daughter of renegade Mages, growing up lonely and neglected in her mother’s Valley, knows nothing of these tales. Yet when she meets Forral, a wandering swordsman, the encounter will change not only their lives, but the future course of history.

Aurian’s father, Forral’s friend Geraint, has perished in a dreadful accident through misuse of his Fire-magic, and her grieving mother, the Earth-Mage Eilin, is obsessed with using her powers to restore the Valley—the barren crater left by the explosion. Appalled by Eilin’s neglect of her daughter, Forral decides to stay and care for her. A close, loving bond develops between child and swordsman—until Forral discovers, to his dismay, that Aurian is experimenting with her father’s Fire-magic. To distract her from such dangerous activities, he offers to teach her swordplay, giving her a sword as a birthday gift. Aurian is becoming a gifted swordswoman until overconfidence results in a mistake which almost kills her. Eilin, on the advice of the Magefolk healer Meiriel, sends her to the city of Nexis, and the Academy, where the few remaining Magefolk dwell, to be properly trained as a Mage.

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