The "Metastasis" happened. Essentially, a giant explosion which wiped out and changed many areas throughout arad. Elven guard, hendon myre, etc. Faris grew up fighting to survive in the slums of Brindaigel while caring for her sister, Cadence. Now Faris must smuggle stolen magic into neighboring Avinea to incite its prince to alliance—magic that addicts in the war-torn country can sense in her blood and can steal with a touch.
Yet Faris is as fierce as Bryn, and even as she finds herself falling for North, she develops schemes of her own. With the fate of kingdoms at stake, Faris, Bryn, and North maneuver through a dangerous game of magical and political machinations, where lives can be destroyed—or saved—with only a touch. Originally from Ohio, she moved to central Florida at the age of fifteen, where she still remains with her husband, two cats, and library cards in two counties.
You can visit Mary online at MaryTaranta. Both Faris and North are strong, complicated characters with good hearts. Other characters, including Alistair, are difficult to trust and yet impossible to write off completely. Readers should brace themselves for the last few chapters, and start stalking the internet for word on a sequel!
This first tale Readers will be swept up as the story unfolds. Tell us what you like and we'll recommend books you'll love. Sign up and get a free ebook! Shimmer and Burn By Mary Taranta. Trade Paperback Hardcover eBook. Table of Contents Excerpt Rave and Reviews.
About The Book. Only six years old at the time, I remember her earnest face bent over mine, a hand laced through my own. Remember that. No remorse when I screamed, only fierce determination—as though I were a complicated pattern to be embroidered on the dresses my father sold downstairs.
What I remember is the way it felt, to be torn apart, like an imperfect seam. Within minutes, guards arrived and dragged my mother into the street. Within days, she was dead.
They never found it. Nobody did. The only thing my mother left behind that night was my broken heart, awoken to the idea that there was gold in this world, that there was more. And she had wanted it more than she wanted me. Half an inch lower and she could have pinned my heart to my spine.
Instead, she only nicked a bone and left a scar threaded with questions. If I press hard enough, I can feel it shifting, like a bad memory trapped beneath the skin. Candlelight glitters through the gloom behind us, only a few pinpricks here along the Brim where oil and candles cost too dear, but multiplying the higher the kingdom rises and the richer its citizens become until it reaches the brightest lights of all, shining from the castle floating in the clouds.
I can do whatever I want. Eight past midnight, actually, so until then, Faris Locke, you are held to the same rules as always. No wishing on windows.
I tug the hem of the cloak over my knee and rub my thumb across the scar of embroidery. My father says her stags look like underfed mountain goats, and I have to agree. It was my father who sewed me closed that night ten years ago. But there are no excuses to play pretend anymore: The son of nobility does not marry the daughter of a drunkard and a thief. Music plays in the distance, from the merchant tier of housing known as the Ridge, undercut with warm laughter and the sound of footfalls in a steady tempo of dancing.
I try not to listen, to envy. The only dances in the Brim are the kind that end with compromised virtues in dark alleys and dirty rooms. He groans. Two years ago, he joined the ranks of the unsworn Guard, a mandatory military commitment demanded by the king from every noble son of Brindaigel. The Dossel Family line of succession stretches like the wall around our kingdom, built solid and never ending.
Holding back a sigh, I rummage through my bag and emerge with two sallow limes, the rind so thin the bitter flesh shines through. I should have stuck to apples. Some guards turn a blind eye if you pocket a few battered windfalls while you work. And I need these hands. His hazel eyes tilt toward mine, cloudy beneath the fringe of his lashes.
He draws me closer and kisses me with his own cold lips sweetened by wine: He wants me too. But there are rules to our stolen moments, an unspoken boundary. There are too many unmarried mothers in the Brim left abandoned to fate while their noble lovers never look back. We defy expectation by resisting temptation. Blood hits low at the base of my throat, a sudden frantic dance of adrenaline as I take the paper from him.
He fights to suppress a smile. I have to stop myself and slow down, reading it again. And just beyond. And this paper Thaelan holds, this is treason.
Thirty years ago, a civil war divided the neighboring kingdom of Avinea between its rightful king, Merlock, and his younger brother, Corthen. In an act of self-preservation, King Perrote moved the very mountains around Brindaigel to form a barrier between us and Avinea.
It keeps the plague out. It keeps us in. Once a year, on the Day of Excision, the king sends his shadow crows over the mountains to survey the world beyond. One by one they return as the kingdom waits for Perrote to emerge with the formal conclusion. Avinea is dead and the plague has destroyed everything. So with no other choice, Brindaigel hibernates another year, grateful that our king had the foresight to protect us. Some have tried.
Either over the mountains or around them, dropping ladders made of rope into the gorge, following goat paths to the peaks above. Most are young, desperate, eager for a life of their own. Afterward, before leaving the city, Keno was aided by Suzuki to move her parents and maids in a room within the sewer to avoid the attention of anyone who comes to the ruin city.
Upon finding a workable carriage, both Keno and Suzuki began riding on the wagon, using it with the Statue of Animal - War Horse to conduct their travels.
With him around, she went to visit the neighboring city first to see what its status there. During the course of their journey, for the last five years until now, she and Suzuki went to several different countries like Aina Miscegenation League and seen many mysteries.
She had to wear Suzuki's two rings of proofs when entering cities. She went to investigate the markets for new places they never been to before, going there to buy items necessary for her travel with him before moving elsewhere. Meanwhile, they have silently hunt down undead members working for Corpus of the Abyss without having their identity get discovered by the organization.
After Keno got done interrogating each one of the undead entities they met, the latter were either kept alive under Suzuki's domination skill or killed off by her fellow companion. With his support, Keno had managed to even take away every undead's research notes and its wealth they encounter respectively. Suzuki was in charge of the stolen sum for the most part, while Keno had handled the gemstones and the like. At some point in time, when Suzuki had a confrontation with Brightness Dragon Lord, he was forced on the defensive side of combat while protecting Keno before he escapes with her alive.
Although Suzuki was in charge of violence while she would handle the brainwork, Keno had been through rigorous training under the former's tutelage. The target of her training happens to be a dragon. She was forced to use a stick in killing a dying dragon after Suzuki had chopped off all its limbs. Both Keno and Suzuki would visit the Large Walled City under the pretense of being companions who are part of the non-existent Oldbone race.
While Suzuku speaks with one of the city guards, she learns from them that an Undead Disaster was the result of the phenomenon, affecting nations to deal with the massive influx of undead appearing near its borders. After entering the city, she with Suzuki stop by the Canopy Inn to stay for the night. When Suzuki hopes to learn more about the surrounding countries, Keno advised him to seek out in paying a bard that they can acquire information from.
As the two are waiting for more information to be obtained from the bard, Keno had to stay put during the meantime as Suzuki went outside to gather information from the streets at nighttime.
During his absence, she would spend her time reading some of the research notes they swiped from several Corpus of the Abyss's members. During the next four days since then, Keno under the guidance of Suzuki have begun traveling over to the city of Seruk No.
Although she was informed by Suzuki that he is searching for an item found there, Keno felt her companion was lying to her. Upon reaching Seruk No.
As she is under Suzuki's protection, Keno has decided to enter the city with caution while examining and speculating the strangeness of their surroundings. At some point during the investigation, Keno was told to stay where she was at while he goes ahead to continue what they were doing.
He reassures Keno that his task of destroying the mastermind behind the phenomenon will not badly affect an intelligent undead like her. However, Keno states that was not what she was worry about, but for the concern of Suzuki's safety when he alone had to go against an equally powerful adversary. She suggests the two of them run away from Seruk No. Although Keno's advise was met with rejection from Suzuki, the latter has officially recognized her as the second member of the New Ainz Ooal Gown guild.
As a result, she was given the Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown by Suzuki before he part ways with her to take down the undead perpetrator who had done wrong against his new guild member. While he is away fighting the mastermind, she was placed in a stronghold magically created by Suzuki's [Create Fortress] spell, praying for her companion's survival. She felt somewhat unease by not knowing when he will return to her side or whether he can escape the death-match alive. After Suzuki slay the mastermind, she revisits the sewers of Inveria with him in hopes that the perpetrator's death could somehow revert her zombified parents back to their human form.
Unfortunately, as they were still zombies, she has chosen to bid farewell to her parents one last time, addressing to them that Suzuki was able to avenge their deaths at the very least. Two hundred years later, she and Suzuki encounter and befriended new people who they accept into their newly-founded guild, joining the two in their travels together to different places.
When entering the Orc Nation , she was accidentally treated as an escaped meal in that country's market. Keno was able to cover up the predicament she finds herself in by going out of her way to break a pair of arms and part of their ribs. Whereas in the Great Minotaur Nation , she had experienced the slave life upon getting captured. After escaping that situation, she made the slave owner experience what the slave life is like themselves and then asked them how it felt to go through such ordeal as her.
In the past, Keno and Suzuki had attempted to climb on top of a mountain peak which was said to be one of the highest on the continent.
During their mountain climbing, she and he got caught up in an avalanche while halfway up the peak. In the end, they had managed to somehow stand on the summit of the highest mountain on the continent despite all the troubles they went through. At some point, she and Suzuki also took hold of all the research from Corpus of the Abyss completely. She would study their research notes in helping her successfully gain the power of "The One" albeit weaker.
In the many places, she and her guild travel to, one of them contain a World Item called Two-Worlds Mandala which she uncovers and had taken ownership over after discovering it. At present time, she and her guild would end up venturing across the Dolor Desert. She uses the Scroll of Mass Compass to hone in on their main destination within the desert's sandstorm. After getting past the storm, Keno and Suzuki spent their time together as a pair stargazing the sky.
Once that was done, Keno was transported back to a room in an unknown inn alongside Suzuki and her companions through [Gate]. The two talk about their future plan of someday traveling to Silent City and turn it into their base of operation. Additionally, Keno informed Suzuki about the information she had acquired from Muki that three countries had fallen in the north of the continent. Hence, she suggests they should move westward to see what is going on there.
Based on Muki's information, Keno relays the details to Suzuki of there being a nest of powerful demons that she revealed to call themselves as the Great Tomb of Nazarick.
Back then, Keno had been younger than she was now, at an age where she could barely cast 1st-tier spells. So far, Keno noted that 2nd-tier spells is the level she is known and can manage to use by far. At present, she is focused on broadening her knowledge rather than improving her spellcasting abilities.
As one of the undead, who did not need to rest, Keno could literally work through the night in her endeavors. Hence, she tends to spend all her time and effort constantly studying and researching books. At the same time, she has been training herself to use more potent spells prior to her first encounter with Suzuki Satoru until now. So far, she had already managed to study all manner of magical grimoires and conducted researches.
While it had been self-taught, she ought to have possessed more knowledge than the average magic caster. As a Vampire , Keno suffered a penalty to all actions under sunlight. Even wearing a hood would not negate the penalty and she would still feel tired. However, she had managed to negate that by wearing an anti-sunlight ring. Additionally, most of the items Keno have equipped in her possession were given by Suzuki Satoru to help protect her from enemy magic. Her talent is that any magic Keno observes being cast or was cast on her could be saved and cast by her whenever she wants.
This even includes Super-Tier and Wild Magic. Casting prerequisites such as skill levels are automatically treated as met. However, all spells will be scaled to her ability level and all spellcasting component requirements still apply.
For example, if she casts the super-tier spell [Fallen Down], it'll have a longer cast time and less damage compared to Suzuki Satoru. With these restrictions, her talent is fairly balanced. As a matter of fact, she is only able to cast such spell once which is also considered a weakness.
Still, she managed to earn the respect of every member through her experience and knowledge built up over the years, as well as her ability to heal as a High Sage. Since supporting Satoru was their top priority, it didn't really matter who was second in command.
After the time skip, as shown in her class levels, she was estimated to be level
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