SPOILER ALERT
These summaries reveal information you may not want to know before reading the stories.
Summary of Book One: Brigitta of the White Forest
Brigitta is a young Water Faerie from the village-nest of Tiragarrow, one of sixteen village-nests in the protected realm of the White Forest. Brigitta is moody and anxious about going through “The Change” when the destiny markings on her wings will appear and determine her life’s path. As her friends move through this transition without her, she is jealous, yet cannot fathom any destiny appropriate for her fickle nature.
While flying an errand with her sister, a mysterious curse turns every creature in the White Forest to stone, except for the two of them. Brigitta and Himalette have no idea why they are unchanged, but they do know that if they don’t turn everyone back in time for the Festival of Elements, the Hourglass of Protection will run out and so will its protective field around the forest. The Hourglass was “a gift from the Ancients” to protect the faeries after the Great World Cry sent the world into elemental chaos.
The Elders and High Priestess are the only ones who know how to turn the Hourglass, and, unfortunately, they have also been turned to stone.
With no one in their forest left to help them, Brigitta and Himalette leave the protected realm to seek a banished faerie named Hrathgar, who had tried to steal the power of the Hourglass many season cycles ago. They believe Hrathgar is probably lonely, and if she can help them, perhaps the Elders will allow her to return to their forest. On their journey, they rescue an odd hairless beast called Minq from carnivorous caterpillars, and he in turn brings them to his mentor Gola, a blind tree-woman (a Drutan), whom Brigitta suspects of having an agenda of her own.
With Gola and Minq’s assistance, they make their way to Dead Mountain in search of the banished faerie. When they arrive, they find the help they are looking for in Hrathgar, a kindly faerie woman who indeed wants to return to the forest, but she has severe lapses in memory and claims to have no magic. It turns out, however, that Hrathgar was split in two all those years ago when she tried to steal the power of the Hourglass, one all good, one all evil, and the evil Hrathgar has been keeping the good Hrathgar under a spell.
It was also the Evil Hrathgar who cast the spell on the White Forest, and if she breaks the protected realm open, it will sever her ties to her “good” twin. The twins are bound so crucially, that when Good Hrathgar sacrifices herself to help Brigitta, Evil Hrathgar dies along with her and the stone curse is lifted. Burdened with the heavy sorrow of Good Hrathgar’s death, Brigitta, Himalette, Minq, and Gola return to the White Forest where Brigitta’s destiny appears on her wings: the markings of a Faerie Elder.
Summary of Book Two: The Ruins of Noe
The Ruins of Noe begins shortly after our young Water Faerie has begun her apprenticeship with the White Forest Elders, an experience she should be excited about. But she feels out of place, shunned by the other apprentices, resented by the Elders, and she doesn’t know how to relate to her old friends.
On the day of her little sister Himalette’s destiny mark revealing, she is called to the Elder chambers to learn that the balance of the forest has been disturbed and a faerie has been born with no destiny. Against the Elders’ advice, High Priestess Ondelle requests Brigitta accompany her to the old faerie ruins of Noe, from which their kin had fled a thousand season cycles before. Ondelle tells Brigitta they seek “a sacred item” that might help right this imbalance.
Brigitta and Ondelle travel by “Blue Spell” to the ruins of Noe and discover feral faeries that had been left behind after the Great World Cry. Two warring tribes, ruled by ruthless leaders (Mabbe in the Hollows and Croilus on the Plateau), fight over the remains of the elementally balanced “sorcery sands” in the old Indago lakebed, from which the River That Runs Backwards emerges, and from which the Eternal Dragon used to appear to the Ancients long ago.
When Brigitta and Ondelle are captured by Mabbe’s tribe, Brigitta is sent to steal Croilus’s sands in exchange for their release. On her way to Croilus’s palace (the former House of Ancients), her escort Jarlath reveals that he is part of a small group of rebel Watchers, the crystal-eyed faeries said to have been created by sorcery (revealed later to be descendants of Mabbe). They concoct an elaborate plan to trick Croilus, but one of the rebels turns traitor, and Brigitta barely escapes with her life.
Brigitta decides she must rescue Ondelle from Mabbe’s Hollows and returns to the lakebed to acquire some of her own “sorcery sands.” While at the lakebed, fighting the winds of the River That Runs Backwards, two hulky beasts with armor-like skin (Nhords) appear and tell her they have been sent to assist her as part of an ancient prophecy. They traveled to her through a Purview from the continent of Araglenn, the very sort of object Ondelle had been seeking in Noe, which, the Watcher rebels tell her, Croilus himself seeks.
Brigitta and her new Watcher friends are captured by Mabbe’s guard while attempting to help Ondelle escape. While Mabbe is deciding how to punish them, Ondelle (a deodyte with Air and Fire elements) is injured and transfers her Air element to Brigitta. The Hollows is attacked by Croilus’s guard, and Brigitta finds herself caught in a battle between the two tribes.
During the battle, Croilus reveals Mabbe’s secret: she is actually an Ancient from the Valley of Noe and the one responsible for the faeries being left behind when the rest were moved to the White Forest for protection. Mabbe is swept away by the River That Runs Backwards and Croilus disappears. Sure he has located the Purview, Brigitta trails him and finds the Purview (a large metal ring) on the plateau, but Croilus is gone.
Brigitta and her new friends rush the Purview back to Ondelle, who lies dying from a wound. With spell-cast crystals given to them from the Nhords, they travel through the Purview, taking Jarlath, his brother Rhone, a rebel named Thistle, and her mother Grannae. The rest must stay behind for lack of enough magical power, and Brigitta vows to right things and return.
Back in the White Forest, Gola the Drutan attempts to revive Ondelle, but it is too late. Brigitta is devastated by the loss of her High Priestess, yet through her adversity, she has found new strength and new friends. A lingering question, though, what happened to Ondelle’s Fire Energy?
Summary of Book Three: Ondelle of Grioth
Thanks to Ondelle gifting Brigitta with her Air element, Brigitta is now a rare deodyte, a faerie bound by two elements, which makes the faeries around her uneasy. Being the energy of their dead High Priestess makes them even more distrustful. Additionally, Brigitta is haunted by Ondelle’s own memories, which even her friends Jarlath and Minq sometimes dismiss as dreams.
While the White Forest leaders squabble over what to do with Gola, the growing number of destinyless newlings, and the depleted scepter passed on to High Priest Fozk of Fhorsa, Brigitta is dismissed from her Apprentice duties due to her stress. Shortly thereafter, Ondelle’s memories reveal that she and Brigitta actually carry the elements formerly bound to Narine of Noe, and Narine has one left: her Earth.
Brigitta decides to travel to Forever Beach to meet with Narine and the Eternal Dragon. She concocts a plan with Jarlath, aided by Minq, but before they can leave, Gola goes missing, leaving her moonstone necklace behind, minus one stone. Devastated by this loss, Brigitta and Jarlath still manage to steal the scepter and sneak away from the forest during the Masquerade Festival.
Brigitta and Jarlath navigate the dangers of the Dark Forest (including a frightening hoard of Brigitta copies she names “oddtwins”), and end up on the immense plateau of “standing stones” overlooking the Sea of Tzajeek. They decide to spend the night before heading to the beach, but Brigitta is awakened by Jarlath’s hands around her neck. He swears she was having a nightmare. As Brigitta takes her turn guarding, a young Saarin appears, named Narru, claiming to have come from Pariglenn through a Purview. After Jarlath attacks Narru, then passes out, Brigitta knows something is wrong with him.
Leaving a note with Jarlath, Brigitta and Narru head to Forever Beach, and discover Croilus has taken control of the Ancients’ corporeal bodies. A visit under the sea to Narine tells them he has also stolen the last of Narine’s Knowing and her Earth element. They make their way back to the plateau, only to find Croilus and the Ancients now have control of Jarlath, too. Jarlath breaks Brigitta’s wing, but High Priest Fozk appears before more damage can be done. Minq had fortunately revealed Brigitta’s whereabouts to the Elders.
Back in the White Forest, Brigitta discovers that she can “see” what Croilus is up to through Narine’s connected energies. She asks the Elders to seal up the White Forest with the last available Blue Spell while she, Earth Wising Lalam, Minq, and Narru go in search of Jarlath. Her plan: to steal back Narine’s Knowing and Earth, open the final two Purviews (on Carraiglenn and Storlglenn), and reunite Faweh. As the Elders complete their “impenetrable spell” over the White Forest, Glennis slips through, trapping herself outside with Brigitta.
The three Faeries, Saarin, and Minq set out for Sage Peak, where Brigitta’s new sight tells her Croilus is hiding out, but Narru soon grows “land-sick” an unable to travel. Minq offers to take him to the ocean and meet them farther up the coast at the Ancient Saarin Lodge of Eastern Months.
The Faeries journey to the mountains where they find Croilus and the Ancients waiting to ambush them. The same connection that told her where he was had kept him informed of her whereabouts. But Narine’s Knowing is still unsettled in him. Brigitta takes advantage of Croilus’s vulnerable state and battles with him and the Ancients. She manages to extract Narine’s Earth energy from him into the tip of a stalactite and drive it into Jarlath’s neck, transferring the energy and leaving a shiny star-shaped scar.
This book ends with Brigitta, Jarlath, Lalam, and Glennis on their way to meet back up with Minq and Narru at the Lodge of Eastern Months, Jarlath learning to connect with his new bound Earth element, and Brigitta pondering this new connection of Narine’s energies between them.
Summary of Book Four: Narine of Noe (prequel)
Book four takes us back in time to before the Great World Cry had ravished the land, when the five civilizations of the world lived and worked in harmony.
Narine of Noe, daughter to High Sage Thorze, has just been assigned as her father’s Mentee. Her best friend Mabbe has been assigned as Mentee to Eld Petra, Keeper of the Hollows. They spend a few last days together relaxing at the Standing Stones above Forever Beach before Narine reports to her father at the Castle on Dream Mountain. Also at the castle are Castle Keeper Eld Damara, Nhord Sage Vendra, and Nhord Storyteller Bashal.
Narine’s first night at the castle, a ball of light plummets from the stars to the forest below, lighting it up. Narine ventures with her father and Vendra in search of the light. On the way, Narine accidentally disturbs a newling Drutan before it’s time to open her eyes to the moonslight and receive her destiny. Thorze puts the drutan back to sleep, but the incident rattles Narine.
Thorze, Narine, and Vendra find a portion of forest where shining dust has settled, turning the leaves silver, and absorbing into everything else, including their own skin. Inside the shining trees, they are at peace, but soon discover everything outside the bright forest has changed. The elements are greatly disturbed, but the star-dust inside them protects them from the imbalance.
They travel back to Noe to warn the others of the world’s imbalance, but no one is behaving rationally. The other World Sages have gone to Lake Indago, where the Eternal Dragon makes Its appearance whenever an Ancient’s destiny is complete. This Transition is how the 5th element (Ether) is gifted to the Ancients from the Dragon Itself, and how Faweh stays in balance.
Fearing they will disturb the Dragon, Thorze goes after them and Narine follows. At Lake Indago, the Sages (Carlotto from Pariglenn, Shonore from Carraiglenn, Trigg from Storylglenn) are suspicious of Thorze and threaten his life. The Dragon appears and Thorze sacrifices himself to It, prematurely Transitioning himself and gifting Narine his Knowing and his scepter. She takes the scepter, but refuses the Knowing as it is too frightening. The Sages chase after her for the scepter, Lake Indago evaporates, and a fierce backward river bursts from the lakebed as Narine escapes into the Purview.
The Purview takes her to the Drutan’s birthplace, and the Drutan opens her eyes and cries out her moonstones. They venture into the forest and meet a giant faun-like creature called Joop, who takes them to the safety of a stone fortress. Narine decides she must get help from Castle Keeper Eld Damara. She and Joop leave Gola the Drutan in the stone fortress. They find Eld Damara losing her voice to several fuzzy lights with which she is merging due to the imbalance. The Purview at the castle is useless, so in order to travel back to Noe she takes it to the “white forest,” the only elementally balanced place left.
Carrying the Purview, Joop accompanies Narine to the White Forest, where he turns back into his original form: a multitude of fauns. The fauns were “taken over” by the star-dust and formed into Joop in order to find help. The fauns tell the story of a lost young “star beast” that “exchanged” itself with the forest, causing the world’s imbalance. It doesn’t know how to fix it nor get home.
Narine leaves her scepter in the White Forest and travels back to Noe with a sack of balanced sands, hoping the Ancient Faeries can use it. She runs into Mabbe, who’s gone mad. Mabbe attacks Narine to get the sands and she loses them inside the old Indigo lakebed. The Eternal Dragon appears and frightens Mabbe off. This time, Narine takes the Knowing from her father, who is now with the Dragon. He tells her she must Transition all the Ancients, divide their elements among the Fae (“lesser” faeries), and move them to the safety of the White Forest. The Ancients will stay in stasis for a thousand season cycles, feeding the Dragon with the 5th Element until the world can be rebalanced.
Narine reunites with the Nhords and convinces the Fae to follow her father’s plan. She rescues her mother and with her new Knowing, she sends a request to the Ancients to meet at the Purview for their Transition with the Fae. When all are gathered at the Purview, Sages Carlotto, Trigg, and Shonore ambush them. A struggle ensues, and in a panic, Shonore jumps home through the Purview with her bird. Narine pulls Carlotto and Trigg into the Purview to the White Forest, where the balanced energy reveals the truth to them.
The Ancients transition with the Fae, gifting their elements except Ether (the 5th element), and their corporeal bodies go into stasis under the sea. The Sprites build an enormous Hourglass with which to hold the balanced sands to keep a protective field around the forest. Narine tries to bring Eld Damara into the forest through the Purview, but whispering lights are all that arrive.
Narine sends Vendra and Bashal to Noe to hide its Purview. They also hide the White Forest Purview underground after Carlotto and Trigg have returned to their homelands. Narine leaves the new Elemental Faeries to their White Forest and travels with the whispering lights to the stone fortress in search of Gola, but the Drutan is gone. She leaves Damara’s lights to find Gola and leaves a spell cast within the lights that will reopen each Purview.
Narine gives herself to the Dragon, to rest in stasis, preserving her Knowings and Elements for the Fae to rebalance Faweh in a thousand season cycles.
Summary of Book Five: Voyage from Foraglenn
(NOTE: Book five begins where book three left off, as book 4 is a prequel.)
Our weary travelers (Brigitta, Jarlath, Lalam, and Glennis) are on their way to the Lodge of Eastern Months in northeastern Foraglenn.
When they arrive, everything is abandoned and in ruins, except for one ship lodge smothered in vines. As they enter the shipyard, however, they are attacked by a misty entity that can snap, bite, sting, and strangle.
Escaping from the entity they make for the intact lodge and Brigitta hears Narru’s voice in her head. They flee inside and shut out the deadly mist to find Minq and Narru hiding inside. Also inside: an intact ship! And inside the ship, a group of Saari who have been in a stasis since the Great World Cry.
The enchanted dragon figure head on the ship communicates to Brigitta and Jarlath, detecting Narine’s energy in them, and wakes the Saari out of their stasis into a trance that allows them to steer the ship with their minds. Brigitta figures out in order to get the ship to sail (without an actual sail) she simply gives it a direction.
During their eventful journey at sea, where they battle both sea monsters and seasickness, Brigitta’s Dragon Dreams tell her that Croilus is progressively weakening the Dragon, and they all fear he will kill it once he learns the secrets of Blue Spell magic. Brigitta also secretly fears Croilus still has some kind of connection to her, so she avoids Jarlath for fear of him getting hurt, which he interprets as her fear that he is still controlled by Croilus.
SeaWing (what they name their ship) lands on Storlglenn, home to the Qeal. The island is overrun with the element of Water, however, and they slog along over the swampland and intense rainfall. Minq has much difficulty navigating the terrain and he and Glennis head back to the ship to wait. After a while, Brigitta, Jarlath, and Lalam begin bickering unnecessarily. Narru realizes it’s “bad water” making them argue and sending them in circles, but he is unaffected. Once they find a cave and dry off, Lalam creates a spell to protect them from the “bad water,” and Narru creates his first “skin map,” which shows where he is in relation to the continent, with a line trailing his path.
In the middle of the jungle, they discover an enormous dome covering a field in the middle of what looks like a giant flower bud. Three young Qeal appear and scale the dome, so the faeries follow. The bud begins to grow, extending to the top and births a new Qeal. Brigitta and friends follow the Qeal back to their home to discover all the grown-up Qeal in a swamp surrounding a Purview, with the young ones left in charge. It turns out, since the Great World Cry all Qeals have been born with all the knowledge in the universe, and then immediately begin forgetting. After they have lost all knowledge, they retire to the swamp to sing in the All Hum.
Brigitta meets Number One, the Qeal in charge, who hands her the newlingQeal from the dome and says to protect it. It is the last Qeal and will be born knowing everything. When born, she can ask it how to save the Dragon and rebalance the world. All they need is to open the final Purview on Carraiglenn and find a Chakau’un, the last inhabitant they need to unite all 5 civilizations.
Leaving Lalam and Jarlath to wait for her, Brigitta takes the Qeal through the Purview to find that Carraiglenn has been destroyed by fire, and their Purview melted and inoperable. The Chakau’un themselves have been reduced to footprints and giant spirit birds on a volatile continent. One of them rescues Brigitta and Lolette (the name Brigitta gives the newling Qeal) to a dry underwater cave and transforms into High Sage Shonore. She’d been waiting for Brigitta in her Spirit Bird form since the Great World Cry.
Carraiglenn is unstable due to volcanic activity, and when the cave begins to collapse, Shonore turns into her bird form once again and takes Brigitta and the Qeal over the ocean to find her friends. It’s a brutal journey, however. Exhausted and starving, Shonore collapses on a tiny, desolate island, now stuck in her bird form and unable to communicate with Brigitta.
In their weakened state they are easily taken by three menacing seafaeries back out to sea. Brigitta begs them to take her to her friends and shows them Narru’s skin map, but it flies out of her hands and disappears. When they arrive in the sea faeries’ underwater village, Mabbe is waiting for them in spirit form, lost in limbo, with no one to transition her. Her good side fights her bad side as she explains how she found the seafaeries after she perished. Soon after, Croilus attacks the seafaerie home. He had tricked Mabbe into finding Brigitta and bringing her there.
As Brigitta and Shonore escape, SeaWing appears! One of the seafaerries had found her friends and shown them Nauru’s skin map. After a serious battle with Croilus and the Ancients, Mabbe sacrifices herself by sending her spirit to fight Criolus internally. Paralyzed and in great pain, Croilus is rescued by the Ancients, taking most of the seafaeries as prisoners with them.
Brigitta and her friends are left with a damaged ship and the three surviving seafaeries, Dangle, Sheen, and Fin. Jarlath and Brigitta make a pact not to keep secrets from each other any longer, and to join their energies together so they can make better use of them.
