The story so far

Zephras Isle drifts high in the realm of the winds, home of the shen'dorei. For years now its magic has been failing: the wind spirits who once lived among them are gone, and the great anchor pylons that bind and sustain the island have grown unsteady.

Sulion arrived in Thendal Village on the day of his coming of age. Ailee Farheart sent him to the village leader, Rorian the Dayseeker, who gave him his relic, an old ring with a story of its own. Then came the ordinary work of a grove out of balance: too many vuldren, a swarm of cirrusflies, and Tai'ree Farsight, the hunter trainer, who saw something of herself in him.

Halaan Hawk-Eye let him look upon one of the anchor pylons. Yala Windwatcher showed him what was stirring the wind sprites near the standing stones: the Al'Aketh, a cult that preaches against the village and recruits from it. Sulion drew on a leyline for the first time, gathered windstones, and brought word of the cult back to Rorian.

That caught the eye of Aetheen of the Gales, one of the island's elders. Her test was harder: the ursera den in the south and its matriarch, Urs'anah. Along the way he broke up Malduko Cloudcrush's band of cult thugs and put down the Cirrusfly Queen. When it was done, Aetheen told him plainly that his road now led beyond the safety of the village.

Before he left the grove, Aetheen of the Gales named the danger plainly: the Al'Aketh, zealots who worship Al'Akir the Windlord, the elemental ruler of Skywall, and whose power grows by the day. The cult was pressing on Shen'dar, and Sulion was sent south to Constable Aonda.

On the way he met Raan Wildwind, an adventurer camped by the road, who taught him to live in the wild: a campfire, a chair to sit by it, skinning and leatherwork, a tent, first aid. In the village, Rathiril Sunlance of the High Order saw the arcane in him, and Aonda told him what everyone in Shen'dar already knew: the High Order and the Windshapers barely keep the peace.

The highlands were full of trouble. Bandits from a cave behind a waterfall, led by "Badwind" Bennic, had been stealing windstones; prideclaws and hippogryphs pressed on the roads; a bounty was out on Vulgara the Insatiable. And the cult had a missionary right in the village. Aonda sent Sulion to Sania Silverstream to play the willing recruit, and he followed her to Falaath Village, where the faithful of Al'Akir welcomed a new acolyte and the cult's raided supplies lay stacked.

At the western watch tower a peacekeeper lay dead, burned by storm magic, a bloody note in his hand. The cultists there were doing something to the anchor pylon, with a great cache of windstones to feed it. Sulion stopped them. Back in Shen'dar, Sania had fled, and Aonda asked the question no one could answer yet: violating the pylon, attacking the village, to what end?

Aonda sent Sulion south with two things: her report for Valennia Stormfist, leader of the peacekeepers, and a signet ring taken from the tower. The ring belonged to the dead peacekeeper's family. His uncle was Talaanis Shadowsong, High Elder of Zephras Isle, and it fell to Sulion to tell him. "Valanaar will need to be ready for a fight," Aonda said. "You'll always have friends in Shen'dar."

The road ran through the Gustberry Lowlands and past the Windfield Orchard. Valanaar was full of people who had lost something. Refugees from Ban'aethal, a village in Shadowgale Forest that had begun to fall into the sky in the middle of the night. A woman whose love had gone back for supplies and not returned. A farmer, wounded, looking for anyone who would fight for his orchard. The shrieklings of Shadowgale were spreading beyond the woods.

Rathiril had sent word ahead. Elaadrin Evengale, the Supreme Magister, saw the old Highborne magic in Sulion and told him what the High Order is really planning: to save Zephras they must rediscover what their people lost over the millennia. Azeroth is the key, and the Kirin Tor will show them the way.

Before the High Order is ready to leave there was work: a missing scholar, Fillion Flamebreeze, found half dead at the mouth of the Shriekling Den, ambushed by Windshapers and carried off by a winged beast. And a lesson every hunter has to learn. Quel'ana Quickgale taught him to tame, her sister Quel'dora to train. That is how Zephyr came to him, his first friend down here.