In a world where seventh born sons are valued for their strength and power, she is born a daughter.
Zezilia Ilar is the disappointment. Born after six brothers, she was supposed to be the son to restore her family’s prestige. She intends to remedy her shortcomings by being a dutiful daughter, marrying well and producing children, preferably a set of seven sons. But when someone offers her an alternative, she begins to dream of more.
In a society that worships a goddess, he follows the Almighty.
Hadrian Aleron, as a seventh son of a seventh son, stands to take up the second highest position in government, Sept Son. His main qualification for office is his birth. Despite preparing for this role from childhood, he does not desire what is to come. As a follower of the Almighty, he knows he will be the target of many, and his faith might eventually lead to death.
Rachel Rossano lives with her husband and three children in the northeastern part of the United States. Homeschooled through high school, she began writing her early teens. She didn’t become serious about pursuing a career as an author until after she had graduated from college and happily married. Then the children came.
Now she spends her days being a wife, mother, teacher, and household manager. Her evenings and free moments are devoted to her other loves, writing and book cover design. Drawing on a lifelong fascination with reading and history, she spends hours creating historical feeling fantasy worlds and populating them with characters who live and breathe on the page.
Character
Casting
I see Gal Gadot
playing my heroine. Zezilia Ilar is tall and athletic in build. She carries
herself well, with an elegance to her stride and demeanor thanks to the
watchful guidance of her strong-willed mother. However, she has a playful,
active side which stems from growing up with six older brothers. Not inclined
toward the more feminine duties of housework and cooking, she tends to enjoy
the outdoors, nature, and activity. Even though this is her desire, she still
takes to studying easily and proves herself to be quite and eager learner as
she learns to master her new found talents in sending (telepathy) and mass
moving (telekinesis) abilities.
My hero could
easily be played by Luke Evans. Hadrian Aleron is an intense young man of
purpose. He tends toward kindness when not distracted by weighty concerns. As a
youngest son groomed from young age for public office, he doesn’t have all the
usual self-preservation skills of his elder brothers, but he makes up for that
by being very proficient at his job, which is overseeing and supporting all the
talent users in the peninsular nation of Pratinus.
Snippet
A humid haze filled the air, smothering my ability to breathe.
Stale air filled my senses as I focused on the temperature outside the windows.
Sunlight, bright and hot, flooded the world, painting the grass brown and
wilting the plants. Only the trees, tall and strong, seemed unaffected by its
blistering gaze.
A tentative trace of plum, cool and
sweet, touched my tongue. It beckoned me to linger on the taste, much
pleasanter than the oven beyond the windows. I pushed the thought away
and continued to admire the trees as they stood motionless in the nonexistent
wind.
“Well done,” Errol commented from his
place behind his desk. Considering the topic of study, he had allowed a
temporary lifting of the no talking ban. “You can release the image now.” He
closed the book as I slowly withdrew my focus from the heat. “You have now
mastered the ability to block Thought-leading with Image-fixation. Well done.”
He scribbled something in his notebook before setting it aside.
“Now let us try shutting out
completely. This will be your first line of defense. Image-fixation, Mental-blocks,
and Safety-zones are all tools for when they have gotten through your defenses,
which are Walling, Sealing, and Shuttering.”
“And these are all defensive forms
against interrogation?” I asked to make sure I was clear of what to use when.
“Correct.” Errol readjusted himself in
his seat. “Walling is a defensive measure that Talents in precarious positions
use at all times. Within their thoughts, they build a wall around certain
topics. For example, a Talent who is undercover among other Talents must wall
off all topics, facts, and ideas that are not in keeping with his persona. By
doing so, he protects them from detection by a mind brush, random thought
exchange, or sending.”
“So the Sept Son must use this.”
“Constantly,” Errol agreed. “Now
choose a thought that you do not want me to access.”
Choosing the image of Selwyn watching
Candra hammer a nail, I carefully built a mental stone wall around it.
“Ready?” Errol asked.
I nodded.
Instantly, plum filled my taste buds. I watched with interest as he skimmed my
thoughts, nudging gently at some, while completely avoiding others. Then
suddenly he was at the wall.
