Chosen of the One: Book 1 of The Redemption / The Redemption (ePub)

I began the series with the premise of the 'damaged' hero; thus, this first book focuses on the damaging of the heroes by Gar, the consequences to them and their ability to fulfill their quest. Gar, with the help of a servant, steals a powerful magical artifact, and the two of them travel across time and space to alter the minds of those who will be chosen by the One to end Gar's dominion.

The chosen come from all the orders of good: one from the kortexi order, a holy warrior for the One, named Blakstar, violated by servants of Gar and marked with the symbol of evil upon his chest; another from the white maghi order, wielders of elemental forces, called Thal, the symbol of Gar woven into the patterns of his mind; he and Blakstar are sent to Shigmar, home of the green kailum, practitioners of healing arts, to meet the third chosen, a kailu named Klaybear, who has the potential of becoming the most powerful kailu, marked by Gar himself, as Klaybear goes to the order's sacred glade to receive his vision, a vision that is corrupted by his marking with the symbol of evil.

Once the other chosen gather in Shigmar with these three, Klaybear is tried for openly bearing the symbol of evil, and during the trial, nearly all the chosen present are shown also to bear the same mark; these are branded as outlaws and condemned to die, but are rescued from the school dungeon by one of the chosen not condemned, called Tevvy, from a race half the size of the others. As they sneak through the sewers beneath the city, they discover a refuge, opened by Blakstar's sword, which is one of three keys. Inside this refuge, hidden for 3500 years, they discover mental compulsions on two of their number and sever the links, but the severing of these strings causes the minds to which they were attached to unravel. The compulsion on Tevvy is simple and easy to repair; on Klaybear's wife it was attached in such a way that her entire mind begins to unravel, and he cannot repair the damage quickly enough to prevent her from becoming a mental vegetable. When he despairs, thinking all is lost, other mental hands come to his aid, and all present hear the voices of the One and His spouse, along with one other, speaking to them, giving them instructions on what to do next and helping him to repair his wife's mind.