 | Alia Waking Name: Alia Gift: a rare gift that connects her to trees Story: Alia has always wanted to be one of the Keenten, the warrior women who help defend the village. But as she gets closer to the choosing age, Alia notices that sometimes she senses things that others don't. She also begins to realize that the people around her keep secrets from one another and all may not be as it seems. When she and her friend Kay discover two enemy youths close to their own age in their territory, the girls capture then, hoping to be honored by the Keenten. They receive both scorn and praise, and they are given the responsibility of looking after the prisoners while their fates are decided. As Alia learns more about the prisoners, she begins to see them more as people and begins to question the actions of herself and those around her. |
 | Water Shaper Princess Margot, a girl whose foreign mother died when she was very young and who finds and enjoyment of water peculiar to superstitious land folk, is an outcast in her own kingdom. Therefore, when Orrin, ruler of a seaside kingdom, offers her a chance at a different life, Margot knows she must embrace the opportunity. By leaving the kingdom of her birth, she is also leaving behind her royal title, taking with her only a book of the sea inherited from her mother and her own courage. Bird is a young storyteller, who has inherited the talent from his father. Though his father is well-respected in Orrin's lands, Bird has never liked the young man who is now their king. He questions is own morality, as he finds himself wishing to see Orrin fail. The paths of these two characters meet at what is nearly a collision. Soon both realize they must decide right from wrong for themselves and choose carefully who to trust. Both discover changes in their own talents, new allies, and new enemies. As their known worlds become larger places, the heroes of this story find within themselves larger questions, but answers, it seems, come at their own pace. |
