Thissraelle, a naive young high elven girl, daughter of the master of the city’s Wizard’s Guild, decides she wants to escape her life and explore the city. Intending to magically fly from her tower in the guildhall, she finds a magical trap her father had set (he’d used a magical gem called an ‘oculus’) to keep her in her room. She uses her magic to temporarily diffuse it and flies away into the rainy night.

The next morning Thissraelle is attacked by ruffians on a street on the RiverFront and has to use her light and mental powers to defend herself. Granthurg sees her struggling, helps her with his war hammer, and they quickly become friends. Thissraelle is surprised to find that Granthurg is very studious and loves history and collecting maps.

That night, Thissraelle’s father sends Eddiwarth and another young student wizard to try to bring Thissraelle home. 

Some ruffians attack the boat to get some magical item from Granthurg at the same time that Eddiwarth and his companion attempt to capture Thissraelle. Granthurg, Thissraelle, DeFrantis, and Antonerri all fight to defend themselves. Karendle surprises them all by joining in, capturing Eddiwarth by entrapping him in one of the oculi. They all float the barge west, upriver, to escape. 

The heroes’ party docks in the small river port village of Dirae, west of the big city. Karendle decides to take her oculus stone with the captured wizard back to Twynne Rivers for payment. She’s told to stay and capture Thissraelle as well.  

At an inn, over breakfast, Thissraelle and the rest of the group decide to help DeFrantis find her kids. They split up and begin looking for the slavers’ dark market. DeFrantis and Antonerri get into the market in the guise of slave sellers, while Granthurg and Thissraelle creep up outside of the market. Granthurg is attacked by someone else looking for Rinkmorr’s item. They see Antonerri trying to help some children escape, and Thissraelle rushes to his aid. She battles their captors with her mental magic and leaves them defeated. Granthurg, Antonerri, and the Children flee.

Granthurg and Thissraelle find what Rinkmorr had hidden on the barge. It’s a strangely carved dagger with a sharp white blade. On the pommel, it has a symbol of a dragon breathing fire. Neither of them knows what it is, or why Rinkmorr wanted to keep it a secret.

The kids that Antonerri rescued are not the ones DeFrantis was looking for. However, now the group has to rescue her and Karendle as well. They are staying at a monastery while they recover

Thissraelle is excited when she receives a mental message from DeFrantis and Karendle. Granthurg uses his research and his skill with maps to know that the two ladies are being held in an old manor house by a cult known as The Dragons Flame. Thissraelle, Grathurg, and Antonerri set off into the Umbrawood forest to find DeFrantis and Karendle. 

When they arrive near the manor, Thissraelle opens a dimensional portal, and Granthurg and Antonerri step in and join DeFrantis, Karendle, and Eddiwarfth fighting to protect the children. Thissraelle joins them, healing the wounded. Antonerri finds the power of his light and they defeat the slavers.

They return with the children and establish an orphanage at the abbey near Dirae. 

Thissraelle is trying to help Karendle learn magic but is frustrated, and Eddiwarth’s attentions are making it more difficult.

At the monastery near Dirae, Thissraelle and Karendle are clashing and arguing. Karendle leaves, wanting to return to Twynne Rivers so she can trade the entrapment oculus she carries, which carries a captured wizard, for other oculi to allow her to continue working magic.

Thissraelle meets St. Ivarr in a dream and is also told to find someone named Heathrax. Granthurg and Eddiwarth prevail on her to return to Twynne Rivers to look for Karendle first. They leave, but DeFrantis and Antonerri must stay to care for the children in the orphanage at the monastery.

On a dark, rainy afternoon, Thissraelle and Eddiwarth are near the Grand Cathedral and the Wizard’s Guild Hall, because they presume Karendle will be looking for the wizards that employed her. They find Karendle in the Cathedral. Using mental powers, they contact Granthurg, who is walking in a different part of the city.

At that moment, wizards leading drakes attack three chapels of the Church of Three Lights, including the Grand Cathedral and a lesser chapel near Granthurg. Thissraelle and Eddiwarth join Karendle and begin helping in the fight and healing the victims. They encounter Parith and Korr as well, defending the monks of the church. A priest fights the drakes but is killed by the wizards, who are wearing the robes of the Wizard’s Guild. They attack and overcome Thissraelle.

While unconscious, St. Ivarr visits Thissraelle again and renews her charge to search for Heathrax.

Thissraelle awakens in a place that is strange, but familiar. It’s The Vast, an odd and deep void of extra-dimensional space where occasional islands of rock and matter float and spin through emptiness and clouds of colorful magical energies. The particular rock where she and her friends are resting holds a temple and an outpost of the Seekers of the Great Reality. They are a secret group of wizards that are committed to searching The Vast, and the worlds dimensionally connected to it, to find The Creator.

Thissraelle had visited The Vast as a child with her father and is thrilled to see it again. She is also excited to see her friends, Karendle and Eddiwarth, in the temple with her. She takes some time to reconcile and bond with Karendle, as well as become more acquainted with Korr and Parith, who fought by her side in the cathedral in Twynne Rivers. She also tries to magically reach out to Granthurg’s mind, but can’t find him.

She discovers that Korr is also trying to find Heathrax, though neither of them really knows why. The Seekers tell them that he is believed to be living in the Emberfire Mountains. Eventually, they all decide to return to Twynne Rivers and journey north, through the deep of the Umbrawood forest to search for him.

Finally, Thissraelle’s new team steps out of a dimensional portal back into Twynne Rivers, in “The Great Reality”. They are shocked to find that the land had moved on into late fall, nearing winter, while they spent what seemed like only a few days in the Vast. She sees the ruined cathedral and the now-empty hall of the Wizard’s Guild and wonders what has happened to Granthurg and how her father could have possibly commanded the attack on the Church. They are met in the street by a strange old man and guided to those who can help them in their journey.

As they travel north toward the Umbrawood Forest and the Emberfire Mountains, Karendle is contacted via oculus by Illitharin, her main contact in the Dragon’s Flame. Thissraelle listens in on the communication. They still want Karendle to capture Thissraelle, and she assures them that she will. Later, Karendle and Thissraelle also contact DeFrantis and have a joyful reunion, even though it’s through magic. They learn that Granthurg is alive, though fearful.

As they travel north out of Twynne Rivers, toward the Umbrawood Forest, Thissraelle reveals her fear of the wood elves, offending Parith.

The party reaches the Umbrawood Forest and enters, traveling several days into its dormant autumn depths. Illitharin passes them on the road and acknowledges Karendle with a knowing look. The next morning, the party is attacked and overcome by a patrol of wood elves. They try to capture Thissraelle and Eddiwarth, who are high elves. In the attack, the party of heroes is scattered. Thissraelle, in a panic, uses dimensional magic to teleport randomly away.

Thissraelle finds help in a young wood elven nature mage named Illariel. The girl’s cheerful, helpful personality quickly wins Thissraelle’s trust and they soon rejoin the party. They discover that the patrol of wood elves that had attacked them has been themselves attacked by an insurgent squad of high elven soldiers. This is further complicated by the fact that this group of soldiers is led by Illitharin, of the Dragon’s Flame, who was involved in the planning of the cathedral attacks and has been pursuing Thissraelle (through Karendle) for months. Thissraelle and Parith must both confront their own prejudices and come together to rescue Eddiwarth.

The party pursues the high elves. Karendle approaches them, pretending to have captured Thissraelle. In the ensuing fight, Illitharin is killed, Eddiwarth and Karendle are both wounded, the remaining wood elves freed, and the invading high elves scattered.
The party then recovers and weathers out a snowstorm in the town of TreeHaven while the wood elven leaders decide if they believe that Thissraelle and Eddiwarth are not spies. During this time, Thissraelle and Eddiwarth come to accept their feelings for each other.

Finally, the wood elves, encouraged by Illariel, welcome them and help equip them and guide them to a mountain trail to find a shrine to the “Dragonfriend”.

The party begins the journey up the side of the mountain toward the shrine. On the way, Thissraelle and Parith work out their differences as one elf to another, and Thissraelle comes to see the divine blessings that have brought her along this path.

They arrive at the shrine and encounter the dragonbonded soldier. To Thissraelle’s surprise, she also encounters her father. Immediately after, two dragons attack. The party fights valiantly, including the little drake that Parith had been keeping, but several of them are injured, and they struggle. Thissraelle is surprised to see her father fighting against the dragons. She had assumed that he was connected to The Dragon’s Flame, and was leading them in an effort to capture her. However, he is able to defeat one of the dragons using dimensional magic.

Another dragon, a large, gray, snake-like beast, swoops into the battle and quickly defeats the remaining green dragon. Thissraelle’s father introduces him as Heathrax, the one that she and Korr had been looking for.

The party, along with Jaxil, Thissraelle’s father, and Heathrax, flee into The Vast before more dragons come to attack. In Heathrax’s home, Thissraelle learns that her father did not order the attack on the cathedrals, that he came to the mountain to help her fight the dragons, and that he has been proud of her for her journeys and growth.

Karendle has found new confidence in herself as a fighter, and Parith finds himself curious about the dagger.

Heathrax agrees to take Thissraelle on as a student of magic, and Thissraelle and Eddiwarth confirm their love.

Thissraelle has begun her magical training with Heathrax and in the process learns about Wynne’s creation story. In the tale, The Creator formed powerful dragons from each of the magical essences in The Vast, who then helped Him form the world. Thissraelle learns how these essences shape and control the magics she’s learning and practicing.

Thissraelle talks about her father introducing her to other high elves at the Winterfest as “Dragonfriend”. This is Heathrax’s earned name and she feels awkward that someone has given it to her. Heathrax tells that he earned the name by cooperating with the elves to help overthrow the reign of the Dragon Kings.

In Emberfire city, in Thissraelle’s family home, Eddiwarth complains to her that her father dislikes him and would like to have Thissraelle fall in love with someone in the high elf nobility. They argue about it, and Eddiwarth realizes he must apologize, but he still feels put down.

Thissraelle is shocked and afraid when Parith and Korr discover that the Dragon’s Flame has members in Emberfire City, among the Dragonriders. Jaxil, Thissraelle’s father, confronts the two about a poisoning murder of a high elven councilman. They deny it and Korr is able to convince him of their innocence. Still, they all feel it is wise for all of Thissraelle’s friends to not venture into the city for a while.

Thissraelle continues her training, learning to manipulate stone with her newfound nature powers. Eddiwarth is impressed but brings sad news. He feels undeserving of her affections and wants to leave Emberfire City with Korr and Parith to seek his own earned name and dignity, so her father will respect him. Thissraelle insists that her feelings are not tied to her father’s opinions. She is sad but needs to stay to study with Heathrax. She gives him a blue communications oculus to take with him.

While Eddiwarth, Korr, and Parith are traveling, Karendle, Thissraelle’s friend, finds her father traveling through Emberfire selling gems and chooses to continue on with him as his assistant in the family business. Thissraelle and Heathrax share their feelings of loneliness.

Rains delay the traveling party for Vernalfest in the village of Larnisboro, but one night, as Eddiwarth speaks to Thissraelle via oculus, she confesses her love, much to Eddiwarth’s surprise.

Later, In the Vast, Heathrax is sick, and Thissraelle is worried about him. Someone comes to visit their lair, and Thissraelle is suspicious. It turns out to be Tarl, of the Seekers of the Great Reality. Thisraelle is excited to see her, but Tarl tries to talk to Heathrax about intervening in the growing crisis in Twynne Rivers. Heathrax refuses. He doesn’t want to fight the human’s battles any more. Thissraelle is afraid for Granthurg when she hears that the Dragon’s Flame has acquired the Dragontooth Dagger.

Hamrisonn comes to Parith and tells him that Umbrawood City was attacked by high elves, Khelnar, and dragons. King Twynnham of Twynne Rivers is mustering soldiers to send to the wood elves in the forest for support. Parth and Illariel are in a panic to find out about their families in the forest town of Treehaven. They hurry to tell Eddiwarth.

Karendle also finds Eddiwarth. Her father had found out that someone killed their friend Granthurg, took the dagger, and sold it to the Dragon’s Flame. Eddiwarth mourns Granthurg’s loss with Thissraelle. He asks himself, “What’s the point?” Thissraelle wants to come to him, but Eddiwarth feels like he has failed and doesn’t deserve her.

Later, Thissraelle is magically reaching out to contact Eddiwarth, but an entropy storm is gathering in the Vast, making it difficult for her to reach him. She vicariously experiences the attacks and is afraid for Eddiwarth and her family. She doesn’t understand why Heathrax, the great dragon friend to humanity, refuses to help in the fight. He explains his frustrations with hominids and their constant warring.

Thissraelle is very frustrated because Eddiwarth hasn’t contacted her. She is very worried for his safety.  She attempts to project herself into the Great Reality using a combination of mental and dimensional magics. However, the entropy storm in the Vast flings her through a number of scenes from her life and her past, as well as scenes of her in the present. She sees Eddiwarth be burned by dragons in a throne room. She is horrified and calls to him but is torn away and flung back into the Vast. St Ivarr meets her there and returns her to Heathrax.

Later, after the storm had abated, she and Heathrax portal into the air above Twynne Rivers. She finds Eddiwarth easily and they are reunited. She hears of his struggles with the dragons and is pleased that he is alive and that he has learned the secret of his magic.

Book 4 hasn’t been written yet. She will probably marry Eddiwarth and retire in the chaotic remains of Emberfire City.