The Banned and the Banished

On a fateful night five centuries ago, three mages made a desperate last stand, sacrificing everything to preserve the only hope of goodness in the beautiful, doomed land of Alasea. Now, on the anniversary of that ominous night, a girl-child ripens into the heritage of lost power. But before she can even comprehend her terrible new gift, the Dark Lord dispatches his winged monsters to capture her and bring him the embryonic magic she embodies.

Only a mistress of blood magick can stand against the foul minions and all-corrupting evil of the Dark Lord. But Elena is not yet the mistress of her magick. Protected by an ageless warrior and a band of renegades, she quests for a lost city where prophecies speak of a mystic tome that holds the key to the Dark Lord's defeat. But if the Dark Lord finds her first, Elena will become his most fearsome weapon.

In her hands, the young wit'ch Elena holds the awesome energies of blood magick - and more. For the fate of all Alasea hinges on her recovery of the Blood Diary, a potent talisman forged five hundred years ago, then locked away behind wards too strong for any mage to break. But only with the secrets recorded in its pages can Elena defeat the evil magicks of the Dark Lord.

In a spectacular feat of daring and magic, Elena and her army of outlaws and rebels have defeated evil's minions and released the mystic secrets of the Blood Diary. But the malevolent Dark Lord has unleashed the Weirgates - black wells of ferocious energy that are his greatest source of power. Now Elena's bravest allies are sent to find and destroy the Gates, as windships carry the fight north to the frigid woodlands, south to the burning desert sands, and east to the blasted regions of dread Gul'gotha.

The three deadly Weirgates are destroyed but the threat of the Dark Lord remains. And so Elena and her companions have gone their separate ways to prepare for what is yet to come. Elena herself has journeyed to the beautiful city of A'loa Glen, there to recover her strength and spirit. Enter Harlequin Quail. Some might call him a fool, but the little man in the jester's suit claims to be a spy. And he comes fresh from the foul fortress of Blackhall itself, where the Dark Lord dwells.