THESE BURNING STARS Plot Outline

Chapter 1: Esek POV

·       Cleric Esek Nightfoot of the Righteous Hand of the Kindom visits a kinschool, where she sees six Hands-in-training children compete. The child Six is by far the strongest, and wants to be her novitiate.

·       She refuses to take them, and asserts that she will stop all other Hands from taking them, and sets them the task that they can only become her novitiate by doing something extraordinary.

Chapter 2: Chono POV

·       20 years later, Cleric Chono, a compatriot of Six’s and former novitiate of Esek’s, is summoned to Riin Cosas amongst citizen upheaval.

o   The sevite factories, which make jump travel possible, are in uproar after the death of Alisiana Nightfoot, with the Jeveni workforce unions demanding change

o   Jump gate travel has been curtailed throughout the Treble, but the Jeveni will be allowed to travel to The Risen Wave to orbit Jeve in a 75-year anniversary of their moon’s destruction.

·       Esek has been named matriarch of the Nightfoots, which makes her the inheritor of the sevite trade.

·       Chono and Esek’s boss, First Cleric Aver Paiye, wants them to track down someone called Sunstep, who has a memory coin that endangers the Nightfoots. Won’t tell them how.

Chapter 3: Jun POV

·       Jun, against the wishes of her girlfriend, Liis Konye, sets up a meet with some pirates to purchase a memory coin connected to the genocider Lucos Alanye

·       The pirates give her the coin, insisting they want nothing to do with it.

·       Jun gets chased down by marshals, and one of the pirates, Masar, saves her, saying he has a buyer for the coin.

Chapter 4: Esek POV

·       16 years in the past, Esek is at a party. She meets Chono, who was Student 4 and knew Six.

·       Learns that Six disappeared from the kinschool.

·       Learns that Chono is being sexually abused, so makes her her novitiate

Chapter 5: Chono POV

·       16 years later, Chono visits her friend, Secretary Ilius Redquill, asking him to protect a possession of hers.

·       Her former lover, he warns her to be careful working with Esek again.

Chapter 6: Jun POV

·       Jun and Masar hideout in a Jeveni village and watch the contents of the memory coin.

·       Though Masar has damaged parts of it, the coin indicates that nearly 100 years ago the Nightfoot family may have been the ones to alert Lucos Alanye to the existence of jevite on the Jeve moon—a discovery that led to the Jeveni genocide.

·       Jun and Masar resolve to get coin repaired so they can learn the rest.

Chapter 7: Chono POV

·       Esek and Chono are tracking Sunstep, and discover that she may be working with a pirate called Masar Hawks.

·       Esek goads the pirate captain into attacking her, and she and Chono kill him.

Chapter 8: Esek POV

·       15 years ago, Esek goes to visit her matriarch, Alisiana Nightfoot. Alisiana reveals that Six is hunting down secrets that implicate the Nightfoots in the genocide.

·       She orders Esek to find Six and kill them. Six’s new novitiate, Chono, will become embroiled in this hunt.

Chapter 9: Jun POV

·       15 years later, Jun and Masar go to a caster den to try to fix the coin

·       While Jun is working on it, Kindom forces arrive.

Chapter 10: Chono POV

·       Esek, Chono and Esek’s novitiates storm the caster den but “Sunstep” escapes thanks to the arrival of an unknown ally who nearly kills Chono.

·       The archivist who runs the den reveals Jun’s real name.

Chapter 11: Esek POV

·       14 years ago, Esek attacks the Ironway family in their metal shop, because she believes they know Six. She kills one of them and prepares to kill the others.

·       Six appears and leads her on a chase. She offers them to become her novitiate, but they refuse, saying their people have killed her novitiates.

·       They point out that she did not bring Chono with her, because she is protecting her. Chono is the only novitiate who survives, and Esek is furious.

Chapter 12: Jun POV

·       14 years later. Jun wakes up on her ship after suffering an injury at the caster den. Liis Konye saved them.

·       The repaired memory coin proves that the Nightfoots may have actually been responsible for the genocide.

·       Liis wants to get rid of the coin; Masar wants them to sell it to his people, who, it turns out, are the Jeveni. Masar also wants to hide Jun and Liis, who will be hunted by the Nightfoots and Kindom for having this secret.  

·       Jun rejects this because she doesn’t want to hide. She freaks out and Liis hits her with a tranquilizer.

Chapter 13: Chono POV

·       Chono explains their failures at the caster den to Aver Paiye, and to the First Cloak of the Cloaksaan, Seti Moonback. They are suspicious of Esek, not knowing if she means to serve the Clerisy, or the Nightfoots, or herself.

·       They warn her about Liis Konye, a defector Cloaksaan

·       Chono speaks to Esek, who admits that she has helped Jun escape a couple of times, because she wants Jun to lead her to a bigger fish. Chono assumes the bigger fish is Six.

Chapter 14: Esek POV

·       11 years ago, Esek and Chono track Six to a hunting lodge, meaning to capture them.

·       It becomes clear that Six knows it’s a trap, and in desperation Esek carpet bombs the lodge, killing hundred and horrifying Chono.

·       A few minutes later, Esek brutally murders a young man she had sex with—clearly only to exorcise her frustration at Six’s death.

Chapter 15: Jun POV

·       11 years later, Jun remembers when Esek attacked her family. At the time she was studying to be an archivist and her great grandfather warned her to run. She is rescued by Six, who tells her half her family is dead and wants to put her into hiding with the survivors. Jun refuses, planning to redeem her family some way.

·       In the present, Jun and Liis talk, and Jun agrees to meet Masar’s Jeveni boss, and consider going into hiding to escape Esek and the Kindom.

Chapter 16: Chono POV

·       Chono reflects on her fraught history with Esek and her childhood friendship with Six.

·       She goes to visit Esek, who has a lead on Masar: he works with a Jeveni named Nikkelo sen Rieve. But Esek still seems to care more about finding her quarry (Six?) than obeying the Kindom. This puts Chono in a bind. She decides to tell Aver Paiye the truth.

Chapter 17: Esek POV

·       Six years ago, Chono (a cleric now) visits Esek and presents proof that Six is still alive.

·       Esek wants to resume their hunt but Chono has other obligations now. Furious, Esek breaks ties with her, planning to seek Six on her own.

Chapter 18: Jun POV

·       6 years later, Masar introduces Jun and Liis to his boss: Nikkelo sen Rieve. Nikkelo is the River of a secret Jeveni government called the Wheel.

·       They explain that their mission has been to find lost Jeveni descendants. They want to hire Jun to be their chief caster.

Chapter 19: Chono POV

·       Chono and Esek pursue Nikkelo sen Rieve to the location of the Jeveni anniversary celebration. Aver Paiye and Seti Moonback are there on Chono’s intelligence.

·       Esek and Chono plan to go aboard The Risen Wave to track down Jun et al, but clearly Esek has a target on her back from the Kindom.

Chapter 20: Esek POV

·       2 years ago, Alisiana visits Esek, furious that she has not thwarted Six. It comes out that the Jeveni Genocide was Alisiana’s idea, but it was the Kindom who executed it—not Lucos Alanye.

·       If these secrets get out, it will destroy the Nightfoots.

·       Esek has a plan to finally capture Six, but exacts a price from Alisiana: the matriarchy.

Chapter 21: Jun POV

·       2 years later. Jun et al board The Risen Wave, and immediately realize it’s a set up. Nikkelo sends Jun, Liis and Masar to connect with the Wheel while he distracts the Cloaksaan, who are accompanied by Chono and Esek.  

·       Violence erupts. Nikkelo is killed. The Cloaksaan turn on Chono and Esek. Hunted by cloaksaan, Jun et all board a train, and Liis and Masar separate from her in order to protect her.

Chapter 22: Chono POV

·       Fleeing the Cloaksaan, Chono gets shot. She wakes up on the train with Esek desperately trying to save her life.

·       Jun Ironway appears, threatening to kill them. But Chono realizes something isn’t quite right with Esek.

Chapter 23: Esek POV

·       6 months ago. Pirates have attacked the Nightfoot estate, Verdant. Esek knows Six is behind it.

·       Esek and Six finally stand face to face. Six has transformed themself into a doppelganger of Esek, intending to replace her.

·       They fight, and Esek is killed.

Chapter 24: Jun POV

·       6 months later. It is now revealed that the “Esek” that Chono has been working with was Six the whole time.

·       The Kindom contacts The Risen Wave, threatening to obliterate the Jeveni fleet unless they surrender.

·       Jun determines to throw her Hood program over the fleet so they can escape. As she works, Esek struggles to save Chono, and then Seti Moonback’s second-in-command appears in the train car.

Chapter 25: Chono POV

·       Big desperate fight. Liis shows up and kills Medisogo. Jun’s Hood works, and they get the shit out of there.

Chapter 26: Jun POV

·       Jun wakes up on The Risen Wave in Liis’s hospital room. Chono is there. They discuss complicity, and the fact Chono needs to make amends for her devotion to Esek.

·       Masar shows up and takes Jun to see someone. It ends up being her cousin Bene. The Wheel has reunited her with her family.

Chapter 27: Six POV

·       After being imprisoned on suspicion of being Esek, Six is released and taken to meet the Star of the Wheel, Effegen ten Crost.

·       It’s revealed that in taking over Esek’s life, Six’s plan has been to turn the energy trade over to the Wheel.

·       Effegen takes Six to be reunited with the whole crew, where it is revealed that they have jumped to a far off system, where they intend to create their own civilization apart from the Treble. They do not want Six’s gift of the sevite trade.

·       Chono persuades Six that they must return to the Treble to try to seek justice for the Jeveni who remain behind.