Path Of The Azdinist: LU

Kraj is still a young, unexplored world. Here sailors are hopeful, merchants are jubilant, and the aspiring scholars of each realm are still teething on what information they can clasp from beyond their borders. Yet for all its promise, Kraj also hosts a forgotten anomaly who withers in hidden confinement. In the sunken heart of an ever-blue forest, an ageless creature is stirred from its perpetual sleep-walk. Cloud-cursed and without memory, 'Lu' is invited by a sorceress to leave his bloomy abode in pursuit of the River Sprite Tlephilisse on the radiant Lila isle. In exchange for recollection and freedom, Lu is instructed to befriend, but ultimately assassinate this innocent creature. After encountering the sprite, and with his first taste of the outside world, Lu's allegience falls into question, and a greater adventure calls from beyond Empryc's tropic coasts. Against the orders of his Mistress, Lu concludes that it is time to think for himself. Equipped with the enigmatic glass-blade Umbra, Lu finds himself faced with otherworldly demons, befriending an enormous lavender fox, and being welcomed into a cult that dwells exclusively in a place of eternal dawn. An amorphous evil shifts beyond the visible horizon, but those most familiar with it are the very same who offer the least explanation. One thing, however, remains clear: no matter how far Lu strays, it seems that he cannot escape the will of his awakener.

Table of Contents:
Pre-introduction vii Introduction ix Part One 1 The Mistress of the Bhia 1 2 A Dream Aside the Vacant Pond 9 3 A Suit, Sabre, and Sacrifice 16 4 Tlephilisse, the River Sprite 37 5 A Visitor 46 Part Two 1 First Impressions 57 2 A Day of Language 66 3 Familiar Fruits 77 4 The Living Lila 92 5 Gratitude 109 6 Night of the Red Moon 122 7 Cloudburst, and That which Followed 141 Part Three 1 Inheritor of the Isle 159 2 Port Awreia 177 3 Bandits of the Mire 188 4 Vanities of Progress 195 5 Daleia-Dal 208 6 Voanmjur 219 7 Den of Dawns 238 8 Awreia Goes Awry 250 9 Luminary 269 10 Starheads in the Realm of Night 283 Epilogue 304

About the Author :
Born in Peterborough, England, Christopher Sampson is known foremost as the vocalist and lyricist of the exuberant progressive/fantasy band Azure. As a singer, Sampson has almost exclusively opted to emote through the lens of original fictional characters in order to explore highly specific emotional circumstances in music. Having written myriad storylines and characters for this purpose, Christopher's notebooks, whiteboards, and computer became inundated with lore. It was soon apparent that, with a focussed effort from Sampson, these stories could comfortably translate into novels.'Lu' is Sampson's first full-length offering, elaborating on the story described in Azure's Ameotoko I - The Curse and Ameotoko II - Cloudburst.