Spring is coming to Mierenthia, yet coldness is still keeping a tight grip upon the world. Reinstalled as a mentor but considering himself to be the attempted murderer of his father-figure Maxim, Dominick preaches the Master's wisdom but his heart is no longer in it. One morning he loses control and does what he thinks will condemn him forever. Instead, he is awarded with a task much harder, and much more important, than that of any other mentor. Merley is now walking on the path of artificery, that of working with metal through magic. Yet, at certain moments she abhors metal and the tools and fire that mold it in ways that no Ber should. Linden and Rianor continue to search for the secrets of science and Ber magic. They are almost convinced that the two are one and the same, when suddenly fire and magic fail even in Qynnsent. This forces them to doubt their choices. They must now decide what life truly is, as well as which lives are worth saving and which ones can, or should, be sacrificed.About the AuthorLynna Merrill is the author of The Masters That Be fantasy series. The first three books---The Seekers of Fire, The Makers of Light, and The Weavers of Paths---are complete and released. She is currently working on The Shards of Creation, the fourth book in the series. Lynna is also a computer programmer and a digital 2D and 3D artist. She has a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from the Ohio State University, and was geeky enough to write the almost 300,000 words of her first three books in the VIM text editor. She lives by lake Ontario with her husband and soulmate, Alex. Her website is http://www.lynnamerrill.com.

The Bers have ruled Mierenthia with fire magic and an iron fist for hundreds of years, but now their magic is failing. The firepipes are dry. The firewells gape cold and empty, and the factories are shutting down. Light, warmth, and food are scarce. Strange creatures appear not only in the distant forests but even in the cities, the Bers' own strongholds. Amidst this chaos arises Linden, a young commoner woman who dares oppose a Ber with forbidden magic of her own. She is joined by Rianor, the High Ruler of Qynnsent, who defies what the Bers call a noble's greatest responsibility. The two tamper with the half-ridiculed, half-forbidden idea of science and believe that there is more to science than the Bers and mentors would have people think. Dominick, a young mentor, one of the priestly class who keep people from thinking aberrant thoughts, starts to question the Ber world even as he is trying to save it. Merley, a young Ber woman who sees things that others cannot, saves a condemned boy and seeks out a reprobate old witch. As these young people choose the paths rarely taken and make paths of their own, others try to pull their strings and shape the world according to their own wills.About the AuthorLynna Merrill is the author of The Masters That Be fantasy series. The first three books---The Seekers of Fire, The Makers of Light, and The Weavers of Paths---are complete and released. She is currently working on The Shards of Creation, the fourth book in the series. Lynna is also a computer programmer and a digital 3D artist. She has a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from the Ohio State University, and was geeky enough to write the almost 300,000 words of her first three books in the VIM text editor. She lives by lake Ontario with her husband and soulmate, Alex. Her website is http://www.lynnamerrill.com.