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In ages past, there had been four magical weapons, fashioned to be used only by the Magefolk. But their history had been lost, together with the Artefacts themselves, in the Cataclysm which had wrought changes on land and water alike. Lost also had been the history of the Magefolk, and the Winged Ones, the Leviathans and Phaerie. Aurian, the child of renegade Mages, finds herself sent to the city of Nexis to join the Academy and then train as a full Mage. Little does she suspect that she will quickly become entwined with a power struggle between Miathan, the Archmage, and the human inhabitants of Nexis.

The only person to whom she can turn is the human Forral, Commander of the city's military garrison and friend of her dead father. But this friendship infuriates Miathan, and leads to a deadly conflagration, in which the first Artefact is revealed. Aurian's flight, with her servant Anvar, turns into both odyssey and rite-of-passage as she travels to the little-known Southern Kingdoms and begins to rediscover the history of the weapons which are the only hope against Miathan and Armageddon--The Artefacts of Power!

There had been four Artefacts of Power, belonging to the four branches of the Magefolk. Now, millennia later, only the human Mages survived, and the Artefacts were lost. Until the coming of Aurian...

Child of wizards, swordmistress, the headstrong Aurian had set her power against that of Miathan, the evil Archmage. Whilst he possessed the Cauldron of Rebirth, Aurian had recreated the Staff of Earth, the first of the three lost weapons, the only defence against Miathan's plans of conquest. Trapped in the Southern Lands, her powers reft by pregnancy, Aurian must rely upon the untried powers of the half-blood Mage Anvar as their odyssey takes them to the realm of the mysterious Xandim, to the peaktop city of the Skyfolk, and to the worlds beyond. But Miathan's webs of deceit are only beginning to unfurl...

Armies mass, and men and women must choose sides in the mighty conflict for control of the world and the Artefacts of Power. Though Aurian and her fellow Mage Anvar have escaped the clutches of the dread Archmage, they have yet to lift the curse on Aurian's child, and put an end to Miathan's evil. Only the Sword of Flame, last and greatest of the Artefacts of Power, can help, but the Sword is hidden.

Meanwhile, Death awaits his third and final meeting with the pair... As the Mages set out once more, the world stands poised on the brink of conflict. Miathan is fortifying the city of Nexis and, in the south, the fierce Khazalim are arming for war. The Skyfolk have abandoned their long isolation and the Xandim prepare for their last great ride. Both the Leviathans and the Phaerie have decisions to make which will change their existence forever. The future stands balanced on a knife-edge between hope and destruction. All await the coming of the Sword of Flame--and Aurian.

Aurian faces bitter defeat. She has failed to master the Sword of Flame, and has also unleashed the deadly, unpredictable Phaerie upon the world, and the end of that is unknowable. And now she must journey through time itself... Eliseth, the coldly ambitious Mage who has been Aurian's nemesis since her first days in Nexis, has captured both the Sword of Flame and Anvar, Aurian's soulmate.

Now, Aurian and her allies travel into an uncertain future. Knowing she must defeat Eliseth, who controls the Cauldron of Rebirth, without destroying the world, Aurian is faced by many dilemmas before she finally reaches the ancient Dragon City of Dhiammara. There, in the home of the extinct Dragonfolk, a final conflict will take place, in which Aurian must triumph or die.