Tairen Soul FAQ

I get quite a lot of email asking questions about the conclusion to the Tairen Soul series, so I’ve put together this FAQ in order to address the questions I get most often.

WARNING!! This FAQ contains spoilers! If you don't want spoilers, please read no further.

Why did you drop Melliandra’s story without resolving it?
Was the girl toddler that Melliandra and the Fey woman rescued at the last minute significant in some way?
Why had the High Mage determined Melliandra had no magic at a very young age when she clearly had great power?
What was the significance of Gaelen having “Shia's eyes?”
Is Melliandra Gaelen’s shei’tani?
Surely, Shannissoran V'en Celay would want to see to the wellbeing of the little girl who risked so much to save him. Why didn't he look for her?
Did Melliandra ever make it to the Fading Lands?
Why didn’t Ellysetta just heal all the dahl’reisen the way she healed Gaelen?
Are Kieran and Kiel the shei’tans of Lillis and Lorelle? Will you be writing their story?
Will you be writing more books set in the Fading Lands?
Will you be writing Bel's book? Gaelen's?

Why did you drop Melliandra’s story without resolving it?

I've had a number of people write to say I "dropped" Melliandra's story or left it hanging, but I honestly didn't. Melliandra's life will continue after this book, and I will write the story of her adventures, but her role and her own story goals in the Tairen Soul series were completely resolved in COCF.

Melliandra's story goal was FREEDOM - for herself and Shia's son. She achieved her goal. She would never have sought refuge w/the Fey. She already told Shan she believed the Fey would kill her for being Eld. It's also important to remember that she didn't free Shan out of kindness. She freed him solely so he could kill the High Mage and set her free from the Mage Marks that enslaved her. (And killing Maur could well have cost Shan and Elfeya their lives, so there was no altruism on Melliandra's part. Her arrangement with Shan was a barter, his freedom for hers, with deadly risk on both sides.) To have her act in any other way than she did (escaping with Shia's child and forging her own path towards freedom) would have been completely counter to her personality, her goals, and her very strong, very mistrusting survival instincts. Melliandra's story in this series ends on COCF p. 443, exactly as Melliandra wanted it to end:

"With Shia's child and one other cradled against her chest and a little girl with eyes the color of a not-eilissi sky clinging to her hand, Melliandra Maureva, descendent and slave of the High Mage of Eld, drew a shaky breath and took her first, hesitant step into freedom."

Everything Melliandra has ever wanted throughout the series is resolved in that one paragraph. Everything. Freedom - for herself and Shia's son. And she gets a bonus - more children, including a little girl with eyes the color of a bright blue sky (the sky she equates with the freedom she's long dreamed of), and a companion, Nicolene.

Was the girl toddler that Melliandra and the Fey woman rescued at the last minute significant in some way?

The little girl is a symbol of Melliandra herself and of her lifelong dreams of freedom, the living embodiment of her hope and lost innocence, and a symbol of her own vulnerability. She knows taking that child will put them in danger-slow them down, make recapture more likely. She has no emotional ties to the girl the way she does to Shia's son, and saving the girl child was completely impractical. (Melliandra is a very practical person, brutally so when the situation warrants.) So by saving the girl - even though she only does it grudgingly - Melliandra has in essence saved the innocent, vulnerable child she once was, saved the dreamer who dared to imagine a world without chains, and ultimately saved her own soul because saving that toddler is the only truly selfless act she's performed in the entire series. Every other decision she's ever made has been to further her goal of getting Shia's son and herself to freedom. (Even opening her mind to Shan benefitted her aim by making it easier for him to find and kill Vadim Maur. Letting Nicolene come along helps ensure the children's survival by having a healer with them.) The decision to take the toddler is the only decision Melliandra makes that holds no possible benefit for her. It is, in fact, counterproductive to her goals (putting her escape at greater risk), and yet she does it anyways. Rescuing that little girl proves that Melliandra has earned her own happy ending. Note: What the toddler girl becomes, I still don't know. It will be interesting to see.

Why had the High Mage determined Melliandra had no magic at a very young age when she clearly had great power?

In LORD, Rain mentions that some Fey don't come into their powers until later. Melliandra didn't come into her power until this book. (Remember, Vadim also didn't know Ellie had magic either, though granted, her parents hid all signs of it from him.) Melliandra is a young teen, just coming into adulthood, and that physical maturing is bringing her magic to fruition as well.

What was the significance of Gaelen having “Shia's eyes?”

Shia was a descendent of the vel Serranis bloodline, just like Gaelen, and they had the same very distinctive eye color.

Shia was very important to Melliandra (Shia gave Melliandra her name and her first taste of love and kindness).

Throughout the story, Melliandra has equated Shia's eyes (ie, Gaelen's eyes) with love/kindness.

Is Melliandra Gaelen’s shei’tani?

Gaelen is bloodsworn to Ellysetta.

A shei'tanitsa bond cannot form where other bonds hold sway.

Surely, Shannissoran V'en Celay would want to see to the wellbeing of the little girl who risked so much to save him. Why didn't he look for her?

See p. 409. Shan offered Melliandra safe haven, and she refused. Should he repay her for setting him free by taking her with him against her will? She's a child of Eld, and clearly a survivor. A warrior in her own right. (Remember, Melliandra risked her life breaking into Vadim Maur's vault to get Shan's sorreisu'kiyr and blades. She's clearly resourceful, courageous, and capable of looking out for herself. She is not a Fey woman, whose extreme empathy makes her incapable of defending herself.) He respects her enough to honor her choices, as he would honor the choices of a fellow Fey warrior. Any other action on his part would have been a betrayal in Melliandra's eyes. Once Boura Fell began coming down around their ears, Shan's only priority was to get his truemate and the other captive women and children to safety, not to run around searching for an Elden girl who already told him she had no intentions of coming with him. Elfeya did bless Melliandra, and from a shei'dalin as powerful as Elfeya v'En Celay, that's no small thing.

Did Melliandra ever make it to the Fading Lands?

No, Melliandra did not make it to the Fading Lands because that wasn't where she was heading. She's going north, to the Mandolay Mountains.

Someplace remote and inaccessible.

Someplace she hopes she and the children will be safe from both Eld and Fey.

Why didn’t Ellysetta just heal all the dahl’reisen the way she healed Gaelen?

Laying hands on Gaelen when he was dahl'reisen nearly killed Ellysetta and nearly drove Rain insane. Neither of them - and none of their lu'tan - would willingly put the world at such risk. I have no doubt, however, that Ellysetta will begin searching the Mirror of Knowledge for ways to heal the dahl'reisen - or prevent Fey from becoming dahl'reisen to begin with.

Are Kieran and Kiel the shei’tans of Lillis and Lorelle? Will you be writing their story?

Elfeya seems to think something's brewing there.

As for their story, we'll have to wait and see.

It's percolating, but I don't have anything definite yet.

Will you be writing more books set in the Fading Lands?

Yes. I left myself plenty of interesting characters, lands, and plot threads to work with.

I was contracted to write Bel's & Gaelen's books, but my publisher preferred me to focus on the Mystral stories instead. That doesn't mean I've given up on them, though.

Will you be writing Bel's book? Gaelen's?

The short answer is: yes, to both.

The long answer is: Bel's book is already underway and Gaelen's book has a preliminary plotline. I started Bel's book several years ago and was going gangbusters on it, but got pulled off to work on SEA KING. Now, Bel's book is one of three (3) Fading Lands projects that I'm working on in addition to JAGUAR KING (3rd Weathermages of Mystral book). Bel's book, most likely, will come after the other FL projects due to the Elloran timeline. (When stories/timelines are linked, I prefer to write them in order.)