Read a full summary of Furyborn, the first book in the Empirium series. This page is full of spoilers, so beware! If you are looking for a spoiler-free review, check our rapid review. If you need a refresher on what happened in Furyborn, then you are in the right place!
Author
Claire Legrand
Ratings
4.1 stars on Amazon
3.89 stars on Goodreads
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The Empirium Series
#1 Furyborn
#2 Kingsbane
#3 Untitled
***** Everything below is a SPOILER *****
What happened in Furyborn?
Queen Rielle gives birth to a girl. She looks much like her father, Audric, who her mother murdered. Simon’s in the room when she’s born. His father falls to his knees when he realizes Corien knows both of them are marques (with the blood of both angels and humans). Simon’s father throws himself off the tower, hoping to keep Corien away from Simon.
Rielle knows Corien will kill her baby. Her magic that makes the room sway and makes her skin glow. She’s tried so hard for so long and is always in pain. Simon’s father used to remind him Rielle was once just a girl.
Rielle hands Simon the baby and a necklace with a gold horse pendant. She tells him to go to the king and the commander at Borsvall. They’ll hide him. Corien arrives but doesn’t see Simon or the baby. Rielle says it’s a girl and she’s sent her far away with someone powerful.
Simon needs to use his magic to travel. He hears a familiar female voice telling him he can do it. He’s not sure because he hasn’t practiced much. He can hear Rielle and Corien battling in the next room. He begins to travel through time. The baby is ripped from his hands into nothingness.
Two years earlier – Rielle happily delivers a message to Tal that Princess Runa of Borsvall is dead. She wants to know if Tal thinks it was an assassination because Audric does. He tells her to study instead of worry about it. She wonders they’ll assume Calderia’s behind it and thus declare war.
Audric thinks this paired with weather and other signs signify the prophesied queen’s coming. Tal thinks Rielle is still too close to the crown prince now that he’s engaged.
Rielle tells Tal that when it storms, her father takes her makes her drink a potion and has her sleep through it. She doesn’t fight him on it anymore. All elements obey her, not just water and flame. She tells Tal she’d rather be dead than her father’s prisoner. He asks if she means dead like her mother. She remembers the flames that killed her long ago.
Someone calls for Tal because Lady Ludivine fainted. Rielle sneaks away on Ludivine’s horse. She rides to the Boon Chase to participate as a citizen to prove to her father and Tal she can control her abilities.
1,020 years later – Eliana is growing up in the slums of Orline with Harkan. She hears a scream and is concerned because girls and women have been disappearing without a trace. And there’s an absurd rumor that there’s a hole in the sky on the other side of the world in Calderia.
Eliana has powers that help her heal. And sometimes she sees mirages at the edge of her vision. She tracks down the scream and finds men abducting a girl. She fights them, but they get away when Harkan arrives and holds her back. They need to leave it alone and stay on task, which is Eliana’s policy, he reminds her.
When they find Quill, he kills an innocent woman in front of her children. Harkan wants to abort. But Eliana captures Quill and calls for the guards to lead him and the children away. They say they were trying to flee ‘the bad men.’ Eliana can’t let them escape because it would hurt her reputation.
They execute Quill. The oldest sibling Eliana captured is next. She fingers the necklace with a horse on it that she always wears instead as she watches.
Rielle enters the tent for Odo’s riders to change into her gear. A shirtless Audric is there. She still loves him even though he’s engaged to Ludivine. Her father said she must stay away from him. She can’t risk hurting him with her unpredictable, powerful gift. They have a longstanding, easy relationship. Audric teases her some as they’re getting ready.
After the executions, Harkan wants Eliana to join him in bed for comfort. She says she will but just to sleep. They talk of their fantasy: to move far away and never return.
Back at home, Eliana’s brother Remy is furious because he knows she captured the people who were executed. He says King Audric—who her necklace symbolizes—would be ashamed of her. Her mother finds Eliana in her room later and apologizes for teaching her how to kill. Remy apologizes to Eliana, too. He doesn’t hate her like he said.
These handwritten messages from Lord Arkelion were for her alone. This one had a large finder’s fee attached to it. Her target was the right hand of the Prophet, lieutenant to the mysterious leader of Red Crown himself. He’s evaded the Empire for years. Now he’s apparently here.
When she gets home after an unsuccessful day tracking The Wolf, her mother is gone. Eliana smells the same scent on the air as when Quill died. The intruder is still there. It’s the Wolf.
The race begins. Rielle sees a group approaching. They’re going to attack Audric. She calls on her sun/fire power and kills the attackers as well as her horse and fifteen innocent racers.
She awakes in Ludivine’s room a couple of days later. Ludivine has to tell her what happened. No one knew the extent of her powers. Everyone has questions about the deaths, the fire, the shaking earth, and the altered landscape. The prophecy foretells two queens who are able to control the elements. People will think she’s one of them. They’re terrified.
Rielle wants to figure out how to make her powers go away. Lu wants to know the truth so she can help her friend manage this. She tells Lu how someone spoke to her—in her head. Rielle’s not sorry for what happened because it saved Audric’s life. The voice in her head answers it’s good that she’s thinking this way now.
The Wolf has a gun and is able to bind Eliana to talk to her. When he takes his mask off, his scars aren’t nearly as bad as she’s heard. He’s quite handsome. They flirt a bit to try to gain ground. The Wolf says he wants to make a deal. He’ll help Eliana find her mother if she’ll help him. He needs to steal something from the castle.
Eliana sees Harkan and Remy approaching from the shadows. Eliana asks for Remy and Harkan to come with them when they search for her mother. The Wolf has to level Harkan as he comes up behind him with a dagger but finally agrees. They shake on it. The Wolf says only those who fear him call him by that name. He says Eliana should call him Simon.
Rielle’s brought before the king to answer for her actions. She has to tell everyone assembled about her anger as a youngster that burned down her house and killed her mother. The evidence from yesterday shows she has mastered control of more than one element. He says they will test her to see if she is one of the prophesied queens and, if so, if she’s the good or evil one.
Eliana and Simon head to the ball at the palace on their mission. They dress the part of partygoers and make their way to another part of the castle. They find who they’re looking for: Navi.
Audric comes to thank Rielle. He says they make a good team. He’d like to fight with her again someday. Ludivine bursts in and says Rielle’s going to be out through seven trials to see if she can control each of her powers and to test her loyalty to the crown.
Rielle agrees to this, knowing she can serve the current king and then eventually Audric if she passes the tests. She appears before the king to comply with his request. He says he’s known her all her life and believes she’ll be proved to be the Sun Queen. But he has to make sure to protect his people.
Rahzavel attacks Eliana. He sees her healing powers when he pins her and cuts her skin. He asks her what she is. Simon arrives and fights Rahzavel, pitching him over the balcony. Navi arrives next. They flee the castle with guards chasing them.
Alarms sound. They run through the city with soldiers on their tail. They meet up with Harkan and Remy and run to the city gate. Harkan will stay behind to fight off the soldiers. Eliana refuses to leave him but finally relents. He tells her he’s always loved her. She thinks of all the things she hasn’t said to him. Then she turns and runs. She hears the gunfire and blasts behind her as they flee.
Red Crown rebels in league with Simon help them escape the city. Eliana demands to know where they’re going. He says they’re taking Navi, the princess of Astavar, the last free kingdom, home.
The voice in Rielle’s head wakes her just before she arrives at her first trial. They drugged her so she wouldn’t know where they were going. She awakes at a mountain. Many earth shaker elementals are there to start an avalanche. Her first trial will be to stop it.
The earth splits around her. The snow and debris rushes toward her. Without a single word aloud, her mind tells the avalanche to stop. An outcropping of rock that looks like it’s always been there shoots up to protect her. She passed the first trial. She stands there in disbelief. Then the pain hits. The voice in her head says he’ll be there when she wakes.
As they ride along, Navi mentions she’s heard Remy is a storyteller. He loves to imagine a world where magic still abides. He wonders what would have happened if Rielle had survived and went to live with the angels.
Eliana hasn’t heard or seen Simon while he’s been standing watch. She goes to check on him. Someone comes up behind her in the forest and hits her in the back of the head.
Rielle asks the voice what his name is. It’s Corien. She feels something for him, kind of flirty like she’s felt with Tal and Audric in the past and kind of different. Then she wakes up.
Rielle is brought before the king and an assembly to acknowledge she passed the first test. Audric and Lu storm in. Audric rushes to Rielle to hug her and whisper they didn’t allow them to come see her. Lu doesn’t look jealous.
Audric suggests everyone watch the trials to see Rielle in action. The king finally decides if Rielle can train with the magister to watch her for signs of danger and if guards can be posted during the event, then the public can watch the upcoming trials.
Eliana awakes and notices Simon sitting nearby. She demands to know where Remy is, who hit her, and where she is. Simon says Remy’s fine and sleeping. Simon takes her to a balcony to see the people below. They’re at a Red Crown encampment, a small space crammed with hopeless-looking people. Simon takes her around and introduces her to a few. She’s reminded that rebellion only matters if you care for the citizens you’re trying to save while you fight. As she meets important people at the camp, she tries to show bravado even when she doesn’t feel it.
Rielle’s father shows his usual sternness during her training. She can’t remember what his smile used to look like before her mother died.
Rielle is at the ocean for her next test. Tal comes to visit before she walks out to face the crowd. She dazzles them with the dress Lu designed. She steps into the water and plunges under it.
Remy wrote down the story Navi told him from her country. She asks to hear it. Eliana wants him to come to bed instead. She ends up arguing with Navi. She asks where Navi’s people were when Orline was defeated.
Once Remy’s asleep, Eliana goes out into the camp. She sits down to visit with Patrick, the camp leader, while he’s peeling potatoes. Hob sits nearby writing. She didn’t even see Simon there in the shadows until he speaks. There seems to be a romantic tension between them.
A little girl comes up saying she can’t sleep. She’s ready to tell Hob her story. He’s recording the stories of all the refugees. The story bothers Eliana more than she would like to admit, so she leaves. Simon walks her back to her room. She can see a faint wanting in his eyes. She acts kind toward him, but inwardly she vows to kill him. Eliana wakes Remy and says they need to leave immediately because Simon needs their help.
Rielle’s task is to find all three pieces of the trident hidden in the water. The water magister and his acolytes make the water roil and toss. Rielle finds the head fairly quickly and surfaces to show the crowd. She finds the sapphire in a sunken ship full of jellyfish. She finally finds the pole of the trident and assembles it.
Rielle barely has the energy to surface but does so with words of encouragement from Corien. She doesn’t have the strength to swim to the crowd. Suddenly Audric is there to help her. He kisses her temple and says “I wish…” but is stopped when the crowd recognizes her accomplishment. She has passed the second test.
Remy is suspicious about Eliana’s story that they’re supposed to search for Simon but goes along with his sister. When Remy discovers Eliana’s true motives—to exchange information about the Red Crown and the Wolf for information on their mother—he grabs a knife from her belt and runs off.
Before she can find Remy, Eliana is spotted and captured by Lord Morbrae, the very man she was hoping to touch base with about her offer. She’s appalled at the prisoners he’s holding in cages. He invites her to have dinner and talk. He eats ravenously and says he’s never full. Eliana tells him tidbits about the Red Crown to show him she truly has information to exchange.
Lord Morbrae invites Eliana over to his lap. She’s prepared to yet disgusted by what she might have to do to get information about her mother. His breath smells stale and feels cold against her cheek. He says he’s never been satisfied but hopes maybe she’ll be able to do so.
When Eliana looks into his dark, empty eyes, she’s suddenly transported to Celdaria. She’s looking out over the vast, oddly familiar kingdom. The man there turns to look at her. She would recognize anywhere because statues of him are all over Orline.
Rielle goes to Genoveve’s parlor, a place she sneaks into for comfort. The two visit for a while, the queen noting Rielle’s cunning, strong will, and beauty. Then the queen offers to pray with her before tomorrow’s test because her mother isn’t there to pray with her.
Rielle’s next test is forging. The metalworkers built a cage. It’s a maze with obstacles she must get through. Corien tells her she could come to him instead so they can get started. Then Rielle sees something sinister. They’ve put three orphans in cages in the maze. She can save them or save herself.
The man in front of Eliana is Celdaria’s emperor. He can barely see Eliana and seems to know she’s far away. Then he suddenly realizes who she is and longingly asks where she is. Eliana jerks back into the room with Lord Morbrae. She hears a blast outside and knows Simon’s there.
Eliana and Simon escape the palace together. He’s going to blow it up. She wants to save the innocent people inside. They can’t because they have no idea who knows the intelligence she gave about the Red Crown. These deaths are on her. They see Lord Morbrae is alive somehow.
When they get back near the encampment, Navi rushes out to let them know it’s under attack. Morbrae communicated this to his people non-verbally somehow. Navi and Remy were the only two who escaped so far.
Eliana grabs bombardiers and throws them at the soldiers near Hollow, hoping the kill them and save the lives of any of the refugees still alive inside. The force of the blast throws her against some trees and knocks her out.
Rielle goes through each phase of the metal challenge, rescuing the children one by one and manipulating the various obstacles they put in her path. The final obstacle is the most deadly, a thousand swords flying at her and the last child. She stops them with merely a thought, her eyes closed. The people are all chanting her name and she makes it back to the upper rim of the pit.
Eliana awakes to Navi’s voice. She’s been out for three days. They’ve been traveling the whole time. Navi tells her some of the refugees survived because she killed the soldiers attacking them. Hob is with them, while Patrick stayed back to find a place for the refugees to live.
Eliana asks if Navi ever noticed anything strange in the palace while she was being held captive. Then she recounts how Morbrae survived her attack and how when she looked into his eyes that she was transported to Celdaria and saw the Emperor. She says he recognized her somehow and asked where she was.
Simon looked as if he was asleep nearby but immediately opens his eyes when he hears this. He’s gentle yet demands to know if Eliana answered him. He’s relieved to hear she didn’t tell the Emperor where she is. Simon holds Eliana’s head in his lap as she drifts to sleep. She dreams of death—everyone’s death but her own—and a world of scorched earth.
Rielle asks Corien how she can hear and almost feel him. He asks her to look closely. She can barely see the outline of him. Then she can hear his voice in the room, not just in her head. But then the connection breaks. He’s back in her head alone. He says they can improve at this over time.
He wants to touch her. She acts like she doesn’t want him to (even though she does) and says she wants to know what he is first. She guesses he’s an angel. He confirms it. She flees to her bathroom. He appears in there, too. She says the saints banned the angels to the Deep and closed the gate. He says no gate stays closed forever. She wants him to get out of her head. He does.
Eliana and the crew enter the city of Rinthos, where they plan to hide. They enter an underground city within a city called the Sanctuary and meet with the Red Crown assembled there.
The men and women go to separate baths to get cleaned up. Eliana refuses to take her bandages off to bathe because she doesn’t want Navi to see her wounds have healed. She finally dismisses the servants and shows her. Navi will keep her secret so no one will try to use her as a weapon.
Remy comes to a realization: Morbrae and all the others aren’t men. They’re angels.
Rielle goes to a garden to be alone, only to discover Audric has done the same thing. They end up in each other’s arms, sharing a kiss (and more) for the very first time. They hear something and turn to see Ludivine’s father standing in the woods looking straight at them. He’s furious.
Eliana, Navi, and Remy discuss his guess about angels as well as what Eliana’s abilities make her. Simon knocks. Eliana lets him in. The strange attraction between them still seems to be there. When Simon’s near, she feels a strange sense of belonging and home.
Rielle is worried when Lu wants to go for a walk. She’s certain Lu’s father told her what he saw and she’s furious. It turns out she doesn’t love Audric as anything other than a cousin. And she’s been able to tell for ages that the two were in love. Lu’s not mad and has even been entertained by the two of them dancing around each other.
Eliana wakes with a scream from another nightmare about the Red Crown’s attack on the outpost. She goes for a walk to clear her head and ends up talking to Navi. Navi says these dreams signal Eliana’s humanity awaking within her. Navi asks about her mother, but it hurts to say much about her. So Eliana tells Navi about Harkan instead.
The next morning, Eliana runs into Camille. She mentions the rumors she’s heard about Eliana’s invincibility and wants to offer her a job. If she completes it, she says she can get Eliana to her mother faster than Simon can. She wants Eliana to find Laenys, a girl who works for her who disappeared a few days ago. She says every seven days, soldiers come to take women of all ages and social classes. Eliana agrees to help her.
Rielle fights shadow animals which attack her in the shadow trial. She soon lays helpless. The crowd’s very worried. Corien’s back in Rielle’s mind. He knows she has a plan and is pleased she missed him. She calls every ray of sunlight in the area to conquer the shadows. The empirium appears again, like it did in the water and with the metal, reducing the element to its smallest particle, obeying her. The crowd wildly chants “Rielle” and then “Sun Queen.” She’s passed the shadow test.
Rielle snatches the defeated shadows, forms them into a dragon, and sends them toward the Archon. Corien encourages her to send it at the crowd, saying they won’t always love her like this. She doesn’t listen. He’s angry with her, saying he won’t always be this patient. Rielle doesn’t like being spoken to that way.
Camille helps Eliana escape to the Sanctuary. She sits in a bar to watch for anything suspicious. She finally gets a strange feeling, similar to the two previous times but more intense. Then three women vanish, simultaneously and supernaturally.
When Eliana begins to follow them, Simon and Navi appear to stop her. Both approached Eliana’s room in the middle of the night and found her missing. She feels sluggish and can’t quite complete a thought. The kidnappers have a slight hold on her.
Eliana begs to follow the men to find her mother and the others who are missing. Simon won’t allow it. Navi and Eliana question why Simon has to keep her so close. A man steps out of the shadows to say it’s because she’s special. Eliana is shocked to see Rahzavel. She thought the assassin was dead. He tries to kill her.
Rielle is brought before the king and those he’s assembled to answer for her actions during her latest test. Lu’s father wants her to answer for her use of power during the test and defying their children’s engagement. The king asks what she was thinking out there. She says she was trying to show them her power and how she can control it, like when she stopped the dragon just before it attacked the Archon.
Audric tries to speak up in Rielle’s defense at one point, but his mother silences him by saying he often uses his tongue where Rielle is concerned. Ludivine says she’s forgiven both Rielle and Audric and holds no ill will toward either of them.
A messenger interrupts, carrying a message from the royal aviary. Three of the royal outposts in the north were attacked, leaving two survivors from each to tell the tale. The attacks were during the night, without sound or warning. Audric declares the signs have been there for too long. His father scoffs, but Audric believes the prophesied times are upon them and Rielle is the prophesied Sun Queen.
The king leaves, saying he’ll bear no more about it tonight. Rielle’s father goes with him. The concern she sees in his eyes scares her.
Audric speaks to Rielle and Lu privately. Rielle wants to speak of what happened between her and Audric. Lu suggests they still marry, but she will happily permit him to have an ongoing affair with Rielle. She says it will have to be top secret at first. Eventually, once war isn’t imminent and things have calmed down, maybe they’ll reveal it to others.
Audric and Rielle agree this. Then Corien speaks up in Rielle’s head, attempting to belittle Audric. She will have none of it. He retreats out of her mind once again.
They all fight Rahzavel. At one point, both Eliana and Simon are knocked onto the ground. They lie staring at each other. Eliana has the sneaking sense they’ve been in a situation like this before. She sees the truth in Simon’s eyes.
Navi appears above Eliana to check on her but then is attacked from behind. The same person puts a strange-smelling cloth to Eliana’s mouth. A strong wrongness fills the air. A voice whispers in her ear about her being involved in forming the “new world.” Everything goes black.
Rielle’s caught between sleep and wakefulness. Corien’s there, trying to make her want him. She thinks she wakes up from his touch, but then she realizes she’s in some other strange state. She thinks she’s been poisoned.
She’s been kidnapped by Ludivine’s father, Lord Dervin. He dumps her over the edge of a cliff. Corien’s in her head, telling Rielle to save herself. A godsbeast called a chavaile (a winged horse) rescues her.
Eliana awakes in a cell and knows the lady snatchers, the Fidelia, have kidnapped her. She hears women screaming and wonders if her mother is somewhere in this same prison. A wraith named Zahra appears. Eliana feels the same sickness she’s felt before. It’s common for humans in the company of wraiths.
The chavaile gently takes Rielle back to the ground. She curls up next to it and sleeps. Then it flies her home. She attacks Lord Dervin as soon as she sees him. She wants to kill him but finally relents. The Archon asks about the chavaile. Rielle says the empirium sent it to her.
The wraith reveals she knows Simon. She says both of them serve the Red Crown and the Prophet. She used to be an angel but isn’t one any longer. The wraith wants to take Eliana home, not to Orline but to her true home: Celdaria. Eliana’s all that matters to the Red Crown, the Prophet, and all enemies of the Empire.
Zahra’s trying to keep Eliana hidden. But if Semyaza, a wraith who serves Fidelia, gets wind of her whereabouts, it will be hard to do so. Semyaza serves the Emperor in hopes of being resurrected when the Sun Queen is bound to the Emperor. Eliana doesn’t understand why she’s important to the Emperor. Zahra is worried that he’s already seen her in a vision.
Zahra shows Eliana her past. Her birth. Her in Simon’s arms as a baby. She sees a castle flash white and fall and hears the screams of millions of people. She sees her mother raise someone from the dead and the Emperor come up behind her, pleased, saying she’s working faster now. They kiss. When she comes to, Zahra tells her the Emperor’s name before he gave himself the moniker: Corien.
Zahra says they were resurrecting angels in the vision. Corien hoped to continue, but then Rielle fell. It’s what he hopes to complete with Eliana. Eliana wants to know how she got to where she is now if she was born so long ago in Celdaria. That’s not Zahra’s story to tell.
The Archon gives Rielle the news: In the eyes of the Church, she is the Sun Queen after showing her strength and control so far. They’ve decided to anoint her as such without finishing the last three trials.
Rielle knows some will respect her without showing her strength in each area. She thinks it’s acceptable to count the shadow and sun trials as one after how that one went and to count the wind since she was saved after being thrown over the cliff. But she believes she must prove herself in the fire trial before she will be accepted by all citizens. Tal seconds this notion. She wants to show her father, herself, and the people she can master fire since her mother died in one of her own creation.
Lu comes to visit Rielle in her rooms to comfort her. Rielle apologizes for attacking her father. The two seem to still be friends. Audric joins them. The three of them lay in Rielle’s bed and talk.
Rielle goes to Healer Garver’s house. He’s much better than those at the castle and she should’ve come to him first. His son Simon is there. He’s the only other person the chavaile has allowed to pet it besides Rielle and Audric.
With Zahra’s help, Eliana escapes her cell. They grab her blades and Navi, who’s in bad shape, before they leave. They’re on a mountain four days’ ride from Rinthos. They’ve already been imprisoned a week.
Zahra can sense that Semyaza’s there. She’ll create a diversion while they run. A prison wall explodes. They hear sounds indicating Zahra must’ve found Semyaza.
They have to run even though Navi isn’t doing well. They’re soon stopped by a Fidelia soldier. Simon comes up behind him and kills him. He’s the one who set the blast. He grabs Navi. They run.
One night, three days before the fire trial, Audric sneaks into Rielle’s room. He says he doesn’t know how to both love her and send her to war for their country as the Sun Queen. She says he should’ve known for a while this was coming. She’ll be glad to fight for their nation.
They kiss and begin to do more. Rielle loses control and shakes the walls and flames in the room. She says they have to stop so she doesn’t hurt him. He assures her she won’t, so they are intimate. After, she has no fear in her heart and doesn’t think of Corien at all.
They make it back to the safehouse. Eliana decides no matter who Zahra says her mother is, Remy is her brother. She finds out Rahzavel got away. Eliana knows he won’t rest until he finds her. Hob is there. He took care of Simon’s injuries after the fight and will try to help Navi. He’s never seen injuries quite like hers before.
Eliana waits to talk to Simon without anyone else around. Zahra appears while she’s waiting. Eliana asks if she knows what might be wrong with Navi. Zahra thinks she might be part of the resurrection experiments of the Fidela, creating things called crawlers, not animal but not quite human. Zahra hears Simon approaching and says his mind has many scars, just like his body.
Eliana asks Simon if he knew about these experiments. He realizes Zahra’s there with them and believes Eliana to be the Sun Queen just like he does. The Prophet had heard of a seemingly invincible girl in Orline and sent Simon to investigate. As soon as he saw Eliana, he knew it was her because he knew her parents.
They hear a noise and realize the safehouse behind them is on fire. Rahzavel has found them.
Rielle enters who newest test. They’ve made it just like her childhood home which she accidentally burned to the ground. They’ve put Tal inside it.
Eliana tries to run into the burning house to rescue Remy. Simon holds her back. She knees Simon in the groin and gets away. Eliana finds Remy, Hob, and Navi trapped behind a door in the basement. She helps them get out. Simon is fighting Rahzavel. Zahra says Simon’s injured and will likely lose the battle. They have to leave him behind to save themselves.
Rielle pushes her way through the burning house. Memories of her childhood are in her head the whole time. She eventually rescues Tal and gets both of them back out safely by dousing the flames using her powers. She hears screams from the audience and wonders what has happened. Corien appears to her. She feels a brush of his lips against hers. He says, “And so it begins.”
Those with Eliana discover the wraith she keeps talking to. She tells them how she met Zahra. An armed man comes up behind them. They’re afraid it’s a member of Fidelia once again. Thankfully it’s Navi’s brother Malik.
They discover Simon had arranged to meet up with Malik’s group on a ship only about two miles away before they abandoned him. A scout say Simon’s still alive. He’s held captive on Rahzavel’s nearby ship.
Eliana feels guilty for leaving Simon behind and decides to leave the others to go rescue him. Zahra goes with her.
Rielle rushes out to see what’s going on. Ludivine’s father’s men are attacking the civilians in the stands. Corien won’t stop the attack until Rielle comes to him. She hears little Simon cry out and realizes Audric is protecting him. She saves Audric, calling the chavaile over to fly him away amidst his protests. Rielle sees Ludivine knocked over the edge of the cliff as she bravely battles their foes. Rielle can do nothing to save her. She saves Simon and his father next.
When she finally finds Corien, he has the king and her father captive. She demands he release them. Corien complies. She’s face to face with his human form for the first time. He’ll only leave everyone alone if she leaves with him. Her father asks who this man is. She says he’s an angel. Her father tries to attack, Corien stops him with his power, and Rielle rushes to save him. Corien makes him stop her.
Corien says everyone will judge and despise her for her powers, even Audric. That’s why she must choose him. Corien gives her a vision of Audric hurt. She’s not sure whether it’s true but rushes at Corien, yelling at him to stop and leave. She throws her power at him. The blast shakes the floor and burns him. He changes into some other form in which he doesn’t want her to see him. Then Corien vanishes.
Her blast of power ricocheted to affect the king and her father, too, though they appear to be in some sort of frozen state rather than burned. She doesn’t know what to do to help them. Audric arrives and takes her in his arms.
Zahra finds the boat Simon’s on. They swim out to it and sneak on. He’s in great pain and has been temporarily blinded by poisonous gas. Simon begs them to leave so Eliana will remain safe. Rahzavel discovers them. Zahra has to possess Rahzavel—dive straight into his mouth—so Eliana can defeat him.
This boat’s in a fleet that just engaged in battle with Astavar. They’re going to have to try to escape in the midst of a battle. Before they go, Simon panics, thinking he’s lost something vitally important. He’s relieved when he finds it because it’s a piece of Eliana’s baby blanket, the only part of her that remained when she was sucked from his arms into oblivion all those years ago. He tells her they lived in Celdaria and were trying to escape from Corien. Eliana says they have to leave now. She helps him into a boat to go ashore.
Rielle’s crowned Sun Queen on the solstice. It feels wrong to her because they haven’t had time to properly mourn or bury her father or the king. Audric brings her a necklace and assures her it was right to do this today. She’s crowned.
Someone enters the large hall. People begin to cry out. Rielle’s afraid it’s Corien. But it’s Ludivine, back from the dead. She affirms that Rielle is the Sun Queen. She says Rielle brought her back from the dead. Rielle lies in agreement with Lu and says she wishes she could’ve saved everyone that day. In her head, Rielle tells Lu she knows she’s an angel.
When they make it to shore, Eliana can see something coming toward them over the ice. The enemy has turned crawlers loose on them. They run to escape, Eliana guiding Simon in his blinded state. They fight them. Eliana ends up having to kill her adopted mother Rozen to escape. Her emotion over having to do this spurs on a horrible storm. Simon talks her down so she doesn’t kill everyone around them with her power.
How did Furyborn end?
Ludivine explains her full story to Rielle and Audric. She escaped the angel boundary not long after Corien. But she’s only ever wanted to help them. When Lu passed away from illness at sixteen, she inhabited her body, bringing her back to “life.” Now she’s here to stay, the human body no longer aging, to protect them.
Audric wants to know what she’s protecting them from. She says the gate will fall soon. Millions of angels will be on the loose. Audric discovers Corien has been talking to Rielle in her head. He’s furious and wants to know as soon as Corien tries to contact her again. Now Lu can talk to her this way.
Audric comes to get the girls on the day of the funeral. He says this has been a lot to wrap his mind around, but he knows all three of them must work together to keep their people safe and to keep the angel gate closed. They must have no more secrets between them to accomplish this.
They follow the funeral procession and watch the king be entombed. Rielle thinks she might hear Corien’s voice calling her name in a whisper on the wind.
Eliana wakes up to discover Simon by her bedside. He tells her she found a way to reign her power in and saved them all. She’s been out for three days. She asks about Remy and Navi. She touches his wounded face. He asks if she finally believes him about who she is. She knows she can no longer deny it.
Eliana’s not sure she’s worth her birth mother’s sacrifice. She doesn’t understand why they live 1,000 in the future. Eliana knows from Simon’s story that he’s a marque. She asks about this Prophet he serves. He doesn’t answer but distracts her with praise. It works. Eliana cares for Simon and is attracted to him. She wants to lose herself in him. He says his room’s nearby.
Then Zahra appears with a message from Malik. He’s coming soon to plan their next move together. Remy hears them talking and reveals Navi told him who Eliana truly is. He believes it wholeheartedly. She doesn’t know what it means.
Simon walks up and assures her she can do it. He’ll be by her side the whole time. Simon says she can take some time before she faces Malik and the kings who want to assemble. Eliana says she’s ready to get started right now.
There you go! That’s what happened in Furyborn, the first book in the Empirium series. Kingsbane, book 2, is set to be released on May 21, 2019!
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Thank you for this recap!! As I was reading this, everything slowly came back to me and now I’m back and immersed in this world again. Am ready for Kingsbane now~
You’re welcome! I’m glad the recap was helpful! Enjoy Kingsbane! I’m hoping to read it soon, too. 🙂
This helped so much, thank you! I read it a year ago and had forgotten everything. Now I don’t have to reread it to start book 2.
You’re welcome! Enjoy Kingsbane! I thought it was great & hope you do, too. 🙂
I believe you made a small mistake in the review that id like to bring light to. you said 1,020 years later (paragraph 9) when i think you meant to say 20 years later in the year 1018. there is only a 20 year gap between the year 998 and 1018. Other than that this review has been very helpful and i’m really glad it was made, thanks a bunch.
wait nope iz wrong after going back and rereading. oops. perfect review imperfect me
No problem, Wayne! 🙂 I appreciate the fact checking. We want to make sure our recaps are as accurate as possible. If you haven’t read book 2 in this series yet, enjoy! It is GREAT!
thanks guys. i needed to skip ahead, i got scared, but when u guys showed the end, im not so scared. with this whole entire book about angels being bad, i kind of think this book is wrong, but we will have to see where the author is going with this…
I haven’t finished the series yet, so I’m not sure how the angel thing turns out. But I understand your concern! And I’m glad we were able to help out. 🙂
Thanks for this! I bought the Emperium Trilogy a while ago, & read Furyborn, but then I got caught up in life & reading some other books I was more excited about, so now it’s been over a year & I want to pick it back up but couldn’t remember the details. Your detailed summary actually refreshed my memory & helped me recall a lot of the important bits. Now I’m (finally) ready to finish the trilogy. Thanks again!