Quick recap
Tessia assists her father, the healer in the village of Mandryn, and dreams of becoming a healer herself, though their guild barely accepts women. Treating a patient at the home of the local magician, Lord Dakon, she fends off the advances of Takado, a visiting Sachakan magician, and uses magic without meaning to. She becomes Dakon's apprentice alongside Jayan, gaining fine clothes, servants, and trips to Imardin, along with real responsibility. In Sachaka, Stara, an Ashaki's daughter, chafes at the life allowed to women. Takado turns Ichani, and rivalry between magicians drags Kyralia into war, which ends with a brutal act of sorcery whose mark lasts for centuries.
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