The village of Caladel lies on the southern coast of the land of Andarra. It has a fortified school for the Gifted, young people who have expressed a mystic mark as a young teenager. These Gifted can access and control a force known as the Essense which is a physical power that effects material objects-- usually a push or pulling. When trained this can be a destructive weapon. Twenty years earlier the Gifted were directed by another class of mystics known as Augurs. They can read a person's soul and see the future to some extent. The Augurs used their powers as tyrants when a rebellion successfully killed all of the Augurs and the Gifted were spared only if they submitted to four Tenants which limited their use of the Essence. Any person who expresses the Gift mark must be consigned to one of the schools to train and control their powers.

Three students Davian, Wirr and Ashalia live at the school in Caladel. Davian expressed his mark almost three years ago, but has yet to control any Essence. If he does not gain this control soon, he will be made into a Shadow-- never able to access the powers. Davian and Wirr leave the school without permission, but Ashalia remained behind. When she wakes up the next morning, everyone in the school has been murdered except her.

This is how the first novel begins. It turns out that Davian did not express control of the Essence because he was developing into an Augur, the penalty for this would have been death if his sense of future had not saved him and Wirr. His friend Wirr is actually a royal prince of a city state. Ashalia was sterilized into a Shadow after the school was destroyed. The Licanius is a magical sword that was lost a few thousand years earlier but it is a weapon that is needed if The Dark One manages to escape for his imprisonment in the wastelands of the northern land of Talan Gor. A curious man named Caeden is rescued from some bandits, but he has no memory of anything about his life.

The third novel has not been published yet, but I will return here whenever it is available...