The Eighth Power: Book VII: The Book of Nothing

Map

What Came Before

There are six gods, and then there is the Absence . . .

The Book of the Living

On the eighth day of Osilar, in the year 8704, the wicked race of ern, aided by some who have turned their back on the Six and now follow the Void (known as Vid), killed two Prophets – the Prophet of the Flame and the Prophet of the Wind. They had been tortured for some information, but the Prophets had not understood what the ern was seeking. The incredible power of the Prophets, also called Wizards, was passed on to another generation – each Prophet’s power finding a boy born that very day and investing itself into that infant. The five remaining Prophets set out to find the two new Wizards, but so did the vast army of ern, and they left a wake of death and destruction behind them.

Barrin Iylin is a simple farmer from Lanshire who had just lost his wife in the birth of their son, Ayrim. The farmer, oblivious to the events around him, struggles to raise the child on his own. But he soon finds out that the ern are after all boys born that day, and that they will come for Ayrim too.

One of the remaining Prophets makes it to Lanshire and confirms that Ayrim is not one of the new Prophets, but the ern are undeterred. In desperation, Barrin makes his way to Saparen, a walled city, where the Baron, Dravor Verios, is protecting several infants born on the eighth of Osilar. The ern unite and attack, and they come with an unexpected power – the power to Invoke the Absence. While Prophets can use Magic easily, Invocation is much more difficult, but many of the ern and the men who had sided with them can Invoke much more powerfully than anyone thought possible. Saparen is only saved when King Regis Trosalan appears with his forces. Once the victory is secure, Trosalan announces his plan to take over the Last Stand – a series of castles on a river to the west – in order to protect the kingdom. Securing those castles will prevent another ern invasion, but the Kingdom of Fahlin controls them.

Barrin is fatally wounded in the fight, and he dies with his son in his arms – the son he had just saved. Ayrim is adopted by a Thane, Gerill Hyte, and will remain in Saparen under the protection of the Baron.

The ern forces are decimated, but not destroyed, and the new Prophets remain missing.

The Book of the Earth

Ayrim grows up in Aeresan under the protection of the Baron and the watchful eye of his adoptive father, Gerill Hyte. He shows early talent in both theology and swordplay, and he trains himself diligently in both. Father Rignslin Josite becomes his mentor in religion, and Master Hyte with the sword. It is this diligence and self-reflection that causes him to become a follower of Flarow (like Gerill before him), because Flarow’s virtue is purity.

But the ern have not forgotten about him and the other boys in the city born on the eighth of Osilar. The King’s war against Fahlin at the Last Stand castles is preventing another ern army from getting into Aeresan, but a few ern have been snuck in, and they are acting as assassins whenever they are able. They attempt to kill Ayrim, but his skill with the sword and the help of an archer named Dariel Sterwet foil their plans.

A group of ern attacks a man at a Saparian inn, and a mysterious man in a black cloak is seen there at the same time. It is not clear that someone is helping the ern, and Ayrim begins to suspect a Flaran priest named Reman Nigh. Acting on that suspicion, they find a tunnel under the waterline of the lake that leads into the Temple of Flarow. They enter and face Nigh, who Invokes water at the last moment, drowning himself.

The act shakes Ayrim, who knows that no one can Invoke without the blessing of the gods. Did Nigh have such a blessing?

The Book of the Flame

Ayrim is now 20 years aged and is a respected Thane. He has not been sent to the front, since his birthday requires the Baron to protect him. The one-armed Thane Chalan Fryse returns to Saparen with news of the front. The war has gone badly, and King Trosalan has retreated from the Last Stand, thus leaving the area unprotected. The ern are coming.

The ern believe at least one of the Prophets to be in Saparen, and so Ayrim acts on the assumption that they know something he does not. With the help of Father Josite and Sterwet, he searches the catechesis records, thinking that the Prophet, to hide his identity, went through the class before he was old enough to do so. This search leads them to Linspan Branslin, a local illusionist who confesses (and proves) to be the Prophet of the Flame, though he does not believe in nor follows the Six. He had been brought by his parents to Saparen soon after the war against the ern and has been there ever since. Once the presence of a Prophet is revealed to the Baron, Verios sends Gerill to Aeresan Castle to ask the King for reinforcements

Once revealed to the Baron, the Prophet of the Dead, Trago Aparthnin, comes to the keep to test Branslin. Trago has been in Saparen for many years after receiving credible evidence that a Prophet was there. It had been he, in fact, who inadvertently notified the ern of that fact when he sent a message to the Tower, and it had been him in the black cloak the night of the ern assassination at the inn. He tests Branslin, but is surprised to find that Branslin is the most power Prophet to live in likely many centuries.

They set off to the Tower with Ayrim to help them, hoping to draw the ern forces away from Saparen as they go. But the ern are closer than they thought, and they are ambushed. Linspan is forced to reveal his secret – he is not just the Prophet of the Flame, but the Prophet of the Wind too. The two Prophets died so close together that Linspan had inherited both of their powers.

Trago stays behind to draw off the ern while Ayrim and Linspan return to Saparen to try to protect the town against the coming army.

The Book of the Dead

The ern come to Saparen in overwhelming numbers and make war upon it. Instead of performing long spells that can be pulled apart by Absencers amongst the ern, Linspan chooses to batter the enemy forces with multiple quick spells, using the environment to his advantage by constantly stirring up the snow so that the enemy cannot see the walls to Invoke against them. The strategy begins to work all over the battlefield except for one section of the wall, where a seemingly unbeatable ern the soldiers have nicknamed Bloodeye (since he only has one eye, and that one bloodshot) has lead his troops onto the wall itself. It is there that he faces both Ayrim and Chalan Fryse. He defeats both, killing Chalan, but Ayrim escapes.

In time, Branslin is wounded, making it impossible for him to cast any longer. Ayrim pulls him away from the fray, but the remaining Saparians are driven farther and farther into town. At last they reach the Temple of Flarow, and the Baron’s son, Dravor, sacrifices himself to allow the Prophet to escape with Ayrim, Father Josite, and Dariel Sterwet. The four go down into the underwater tunnel (which has been barred over), and they are about to drown when Linspan somehow gets his Magic to work underwater and save them.

The next morning, they find that Saparen has been nearly totally destroyed. Only a hundred ern remain, but no defenders for the town. The four escape, soon finding Dravor Verios still alive, but gone mad from what he had witnessed. They escape to Lanshire, but they find the ern guarding the port. Instead they head north to Aeresan.

In Aeresan, they find that the King is acting strangely, not at all concerned about the ern. He has also not heard from Gerill, leading the men to believe that the Thane had been waylaid on the road. Linspan suspects that something is amiss with the King. Surely, the next morning, the King reveals that he has sided with the ern in order to turn the tide in the war against Fahlin. Also sided with the ern is Draughton Xyn, the Prophet of the Void. They try to kill the five Saparians, but Baron Verios exposes the King in front of his own men. Trosalan kills Verios, but the others escape, only to find that they are not only pursued by men, but by a giant beast they call the dog-thing.

They end up on the roof of the castle, where Linspan uses a cloud of smoke to shield them as they leap off the top of the castle.

The Book of the Sea

King Trosalan and Draughton Xyn begin their search for the group from Saparen, not realizing that the four never left the castle at all, but were blown by Linspan’s wind right back into one of the upper windows. In the confusion, the four escape the castle, sneaking onto a ship heading east toward the Tower. Linspan’s wind proves their greatest advantage, but throughout their journey, they note that there is a natural wind that seems to be always pointing in the very direction they need to go.

Through tricks and misdirection, they are able to get through the Last Stand and around the mountains to East Pass. It is there that they seem to be recognized by a one-handed man, so they hurry from the city to escape from him.

From there they travel into the desert where they reach the Tower. They are met by Falnor Mikant, the Prophet of the Sea, who is amazed by the story of their adventure so far. He agrees that they must unite the Prophets against the Void, and so resolves to join the travelers. Dariel stays on the top of the Tower, using the place’s Magic to keep a watch over the land, while the others retreat to the library to try to find out more information on how to defeat the Void.

There, Linspan discovers that the first Prophets, during the Death Wars, conspired to destroy something they called the Eighth Power, or the First Power. They had done this to end the Wars, but they were beginning to suspect that they had done more harm than good.

Almost too late, they realize that their wine has been poisoned – Mikant has betrayed them. Only Branslin, who had been too engrossed in the journals of the first Prophets, remains unaffected. He defeats Mikant in a Magical dual to the death, and Rignslin, drawing on the power of all of the Six rather than just Serren (at