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Brightly Burning

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The novel which focuses on what could be called the tragedy of the Valdemaran Herald Lavan Firestorm. A boy (Lavan) from a mercantile family born with frightening abilities is misunderstood by his peers and family. The book begins when Lavan's father decides to move the family from the countryside to the city of Haven. Lavan finds himself stuck in a mercantile school he does not care for and with nasty bullies for senior students. Life does not seem good for Lavan as he becomes the target of the leader of the Seniors.

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Closer to the Chest

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2001-06-01

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Oathbound

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DAW

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978

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The novel which focuses on what could be called the tragedy of the Valdemaran Herald Lavan Firestorm. A boy (Lavan) from a mercantile family born with frightening abilities is misunderstood by his peers and family. The book begins when Lavan's father decides to move the family from the countryside to the city of Haven. Lavan finds himself stuck in a mercantile school he does not care for and with nasty bullies for senior students. Life does not seem good for Lavan as he becomes the target of the leader of the Seniors. All this changes when quite suddenly during a bout of heavy-handed bullying a huge fire started around Lavan causing the school to burn down along with several of the students who had been bullying him. The constant bullying had finally thrown open Lavan's innate ability to create and control fires. With the fire raging out of control, a Companion named Kalira "Chooses" Lavan. Companions are spirits of Valdemar who choose people to become Heralds, who roam the land dispensing justice. Lavan in a single moment of panic and rage becomes a Herald Trainee. During his recovery, Lavan is questioned at length by the Herald Pol as to the nature of the fire at the Academy. When the questions begin to frighten and anger him, Lavan's FireStarting Gift slips his tenuous hold. In an act of desperation, he is able to turn its effects away from the Herald and toward the large torches in the gardens. It is now, while Herald Pol and a city guard are discussing the fate of the boy responsible for the deaths at the Academy, that Lavan is accosted by Kalira. Kalira is a Companion, one of the horse-like spirit-creatures responsible for choosing Valdemar's Heralds; and she Chooses Lavan, bonding with him as a Chosen, as well as a lifebond. It is through this bonding that Lavan gains his slim control over his terrible power. The Karse Army poised at the border, Herald Lavan travels to the battlefield with Herald Pol, the Herald's wife, and the Herald's daughter. It is during this journey the group is ambushed, and Pol is seriously injured. Lavan uses the guilt and anger he feels because of the ambush to fuel a fiery attack against the Karsite encampment. This attack earns Herald Lavan the cognomen "Firestorm". In the Battle of Burning Pines, Herald Lavan singlehandedly holds back the Karsite army by creating a wall of fire in the path of the attack, buying time that allows the Valdemaran army to get into position. Once the battle is underway, he immolates a rush of foot soldiers with a wall of flame, and attacks another rush with large, random spouts of fire. But the final blow is struck when an assassin's arrow kills his Companion Kalira. Without Kalira to keep him sane and his gift under control, Lavan unleashes the full effects of his power in a final strike. Only Pol and the other Herald's ForeSight and Mindspeaking abilities allow the Valdemaran army to limit their losses to the inferno that Lavan sets upon the Karsites. The firestorm not only destroys the Karsite army, but it consumes and kills Lavan as well.