In Burning Zones We Build Against the Sun

Introduction[]

At the coronation of Queen Alliana^[1] of Valdemar, a Karse envoy exhorted her to banish the white demon Companions and dedicate Valdemar to the god V'kandis. Then she could wed Karse King Nabeth's eldest son, Prince Salaran. She refused, and less than a year later Karse began attacking her borders.

The Sunpriests conjured demons, fed by the Sunguard's captives until it was time to attack. Demons can't enter Valdemar, but a Valdemaran scouting party entering Karse without a Herald isn't aware of a demon's approach. If the scouts can't return to Valdemar in time, the demons can injure their minds. They leave their imprint on the victims, causing them to act like demons, raging violently and destroying anyone around them.

There is only one Valdemaran Mindhealer who has surpassed Journeyman status and can heal the demons' victims. His own energy is depleted each time. The exhausted mindhealer is working himself to death.

Characters[]

Characters appearing or mentioned in this story.

Major characters[]

Hedion - an exhausted Mindhealer
Rhoses - a Companion who finds Hedion and refuses to accept Garaune's rejection
Gaurane - a mind-deaf man who refuses to become a Herald
Elade - a fighter who corrals demon victims and guards Hedion
Meran - a Bard who soothes victims and helps tired Healers sleep

Minor characters[]

Dallivant - a Captain
Felmar - a garrison Commander
Guard Brion - a demon victim from horse country
Maret - a witness to Brion's violence
Kailes - a soldier guarding Brion
Esclinet - a messenger from Stone Tower, which has dozens of demon victims
Tallese - Hedion's horse
Ablion Taus - a smuggler and demon victim

Referenced characters[]

Alliana - Queen of Valdemar
Nabeth - King of Karse
Salaran - Prince and Heir-apparent of Karse
Liodain- Garaune's brother, murdered by Karsite raiding party
Brondrin - a Valdemaran Lord who recruited Gaurane for his mission to eavesdrop at the Temple

Places[]

Old Quarry Road - a major road that cuts across the southeast corner of Valdemar and goes all the way to Crown City in Hardorn
Yvendan - a Valdemar border town, near the Terilee River where it crosses into Karse
Terilee River - on the Karse side it is called the Sun Serpent River
Stone Tower Garrison - a garrison on Valdemar's border
Temple - Sunpriest headquarters (presumably in Sunhame)
Haven - Valdemar's capital city
Estidan - a Valdemar border town

Terminology[]

Mindhealing
Mind-hearing - the audio version of FarSight; the Gifted person can hear something from far away
Ypon - a horse goddess worshiped in horse country

Story description (WARNING! SPOILERS!)[]

Mindhealer Hedion is working himself to death helping Valdemarans who have been mind-injured by Karsite demons. A depleted Healer should be treated like a shock victim, with blankets and hot sweet tea and rest. But there are many demon victims, and he is the only healer who can do help them.

Still suffering a headache from his last healing, Hedion goes to a guard tower near the Karse border that summoned him a sennight ago. The demon victim has destroyed three horses and broken a soldier's arm. The Commander wants to hang him, but Hedion uses his Mindspeech ability to get information that will convince the victim's jailers to allow the healing. Hedion won't waste his energy to heal someone who will be hanged. He is escorted to the chained up victim and touches his head, helping him to remove the demon's image, layer by layer, fight by fight, as the victim feels the demon image die in agony every time. They win the battle; the victim is healed, but now must learn to cope with guilt for the things he had done. Hedion's headache is agonizing.

As he is reporting to the Commander, a messenger suddenly appears. She has been chasing him down for a week; Stone Tower has dozens of demon victims. He orders her to rest, and then staggers out to mount his horse. Hedion falls asleep riding, and wakes up lying on the ground, with a Companion standing over him. It coaxes him to his feet and supports him as they walk to a camp, which is occupied by a mind-deaf man who proceeds to throw stones and shout at the Companion, who shouts back in Mindspeak. They cause Hedion's headache to worsen and he passes out.

He awakens in much less pain, having slept while the man, Gaurane, cared for him. He is horrified to discover that it has been three days and tries to get up to continue, but Gaurane points out that he won't make it. They dispatch the Companion, Rhoses, with a message for Stone Tower, so that Hedion can stay and continue to rest and rebuild his strength.

Gaurane tells his own complicated story. He was a farmer in Hardorn. His mind-hearing talent was activated when his family, including his life-bonded wife, was murdered by a Karsite raiding party. He became a drunk in Haven, but Queen Alliana, Lord Brondrin and Companion Rhoses recruited him for an important spying mission to the Sunpriest Temple. He has no memory of what happened there - when he escaped on Rhoses, his talent and memory of those events was gone. He was told that his mission was complete, his mind might recover, and that he should train as a Herald. Instead, he left. He refuses to become a Herald, and he continually rejects Rhoses, even throwing things at him in hopes that he will go away and find a new Chosen, but Rhoses refuses to give up.

Gaurane confronts Hedion about his stubbornness. Hedion insists that the victims need him - but Gaurane points out that if he dies, he's making sure that these people won't be healed. He is sabotaging his own goal. Gaurane offers to help figure out what Hedion can do without dying.

Hedion had sacrificed everything for this work: his home, his family, his wife, his child. "He'd nearly lost his life, refusing to admit what he already knew: the task was too big for one man, and too endless for one life."

Much later, a fighter, Elade, is waiting to capture another demon victim, with a bard, Meran, as bait. The man charges at the Meran from cover, and Elade can't reach them in time - but Rhoses rushes in and defends Meran, knocking the man down so that Meran can throw a net over him and Elade can knock him out. The man is a smuggler, and he will need to find another line of work after he is healed.

The team had come together to support Hedion. They could not do what he could, but they could do everything else. Elade is a fighter who can help capture demon victims without killing them, guard Hedion from attack, and restrain the victims if needed. Bard Meran has the ability to soothe people and sing them to sleep, including victims as well as a certain stubborn mindhealer. Gaurane considers himself dead weight, but he is one that created the group, and has the power to keep Hedion from working himself to death. And Rhodes fills in as needed, even as he continues trying to get Gaurane to accept him.

Chronology[]

Queen Alliana is not in the official timeline.^[1] However, since magic doesn't work in Valdemar, it is clearly after Vanyel's time and before Selenay.

References[]

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Queen Alliana is not on the official timeline; she is not a Mercedes Lackey character.

[TL-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Queen Alliana is not on the official timeline; she is not a Mercedes Lackey character.

[1]