Book excerpt: She heard a hundred undecipherable whispers floating through the atmosphere, surrounding her in an invisible wall, but amongst the murmurs she perceived one distinct voice calling out above the rest. Though her instincts told her to release the unnatural object, she clasped it and stared up at the spectacular spiral that towered above her. The one voice graduated closer to her, growing louder and louder. Slowly, the words became distinguishable, and her ears were pricked to catch them. Lauria thinks that her life might never hold anything more for her than the occasional festival or the conflicts with her family. But one night when she sneaks out in hopes of stealing a few moments alone, a strange raindrop changes her world forever. It bursts forth into a vortex of light and sound and releases a creature of unnatural beauty and power who tells her there is a task she must complete. Far across the plains of her homeland, Austurea, a dying soldier named Jestun lies in an empty battlefield. As Lauria struggles to discern the task laid before her and make sense of the strife within her family and her own heart, Jestun searches for the answers surrounding his family's mysterious past. Meanwhile a Dark power hovers over them and their fates, their only shield the Light that is bringing their paths closer together. Whispers of Nightfall is the first book of a saga that rages across land and dimensions, questions issues of identity and destiny, and reveals the battle between Light and Darkness.