Kumasagi is a mystical fantasy saga imbued with cultural influences from India and Tibet. The story features a semi-aquatic society, deep telepathic bonds, extradimensional beings, giant murder birds, and a touch of clean romance.
Prologue and Chapters 1 - 15 (230 pages)
Najat has spent years as a senior-ranked diver, harvesting destins as they are born from pods in a sacred lake. Soon he must give up diving in order to fulfill his duties as the Kumasagi, the younger of two powerful mystics who comfort and guide the souls of the dead.
An unexpected chain of events places Najat in the path of an errant destin—a woman newly born, yet fully grown. The destin instinctively seeks a Holy Amala, the one who can awaken her cognition and help her find her name.
When the destin finds Najat instead, they must both survive a mind-bending confrontation, which leaves them with a deep mystical bond held secret even from each other.
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The barge lurched as the oarsmen pushed off from the dock. Najat’s stomach lurched with it, instantly knocking him out of his trance. It was only momentary—he slid back into it easily, as he would a slipped sandal. But the abstract lump in his stomach seemed larger now, more insistent. An odd tingling sensation spiked the fingers of both hands.
Suddenly he Felt the unmistakable, velvety touch of Amala Tebbe’s mind. She hovered around him curiously, having noticed a blip among the divers when the barge launched. It was very unusual for the Kumasagi to be distracted out of such a deep meditative state—Tebbe had trained him herself. Najat ignored her as he ignored his hands and ignored his stomach. If he did not acknowledge them, the pain and Amala Tebbe would surely go away.
Chapters 16 - 26 (217 pages)
Jayan follows Padir to Kandargiri, realm of the monstrous birds known as lopperbeaks. Determined to ride one of the winged brutes, Padir enlists the help of a young, troubled mystic named Shigaran—the only person in the world who can meet minds with a lopperbeak.
Along the way, an old friend detects Jayan's troubling secret.
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In Solgaran’s house, Padir sat with crossed legs while Bal applied extra tari oil to his scarred shoulders and back. Sopan was eager to help, so they let him rub the oil over his father’s arm.
“I want to bring Sopan down there this time,” Padir said.
“No,” Bal said gruffly behind him.
“I want him to see the first flight.”
“I want to go!” Sopan said.
“He can see the second flight, and many more of ‘em after,” Bal said to Padir. “Let’s make sure you survive the first one, right?”
“What does ‘survive’ mean?” Sopan said.
Bal grumbled to himself for letting that slip.
Chapters 27 - 40 (282 pages)
Embarrassed by their last encounter, Asta hopes to avoid Najat. She leaves Shakti Lake City to reunite with Jayan, but grows suspicious of the mysterious scar on Jayan's arm.
Mahasagi Tebhan teaches Najat how to purify ghost shaktis, the lost and tortured souls who trail behind the Skyfish. Najat's methods, however, differ from Tebhan's. To rescue a long-suffering ghost from its eternal mental prison, Najat must witness a tragic event five hundred years in the past.
With newfound confidence from her travels, Asta returns to Shakti Lake. A friendship is delicately rekindled while a terrifying new ability awakens.
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Asta’s consciousness came crashing back to her body on earth. The heat of her own rushing blood and living flesh was so great that melding back with it caused her a moment of pleasure bordering on ecstasy, right there on the Shakti Lake Park bench—no matter that it came on the heels of such terror.
The moment faded, but left her trembling again, this time among the happy chirping of birds and lovely scents of the park’s trees and flowers.
Asta stared down at the sketchbook where it had landed on the path at her feet. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t reach or bend to pick it up.
A distant splashing came to her ears. Suddenly the splashing wasn’t so distant, but quite distinct. She heard a grunt, a thud, and the crashing branches of shrubbery—and then Najat Gampoban stood gasping for breath between her and the sun, dripping water all over her and gripping her shoulders.
“Asta-la! Are you alright?!”
Chapters 41 - 60 (517 pages)
Asta travels to Sindhupat Island, hoping to meet a spiritual master who will help her overcome her difficulties with the mystic arts. The island, however, reveals a deeper purpose when Asta begins to have disturbing visions from Najat's childhood there.
Warned by Najat’s memories, Asta learns that the island’s most famous denizen, Delan Gampoban, is not the man that songs and stories of legend would have him seem. With the island’s sacred grotto in ruins, Asta follows the clues to how the grotto might be restored—putting her on a collision course with the man who tormented Najat for years.
In Shakti Lake City, Najat still holds a portion of Asta’s kana, which may be the key to bringing forth new life from the island's destin cove. Najat and Asta's connection allows them to work together across the distance ... but soon they may be forced to give up their bond forever.
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His ribs stung. The orb swirled and trembled and pounded against his lungs despite his efforts to calm it down. He felt a trickle of moisture on his chest and placed his fingers there. Peering down at his hand, he rubbed his webbed thumb across his fingertips and discovered a generous smear of blood.
“Ai, Kumasagi!” came Rajung’s voice behind him.
Najat stared from his dripping red fingers to Rajung, then looked back to his own fingers again. They were clean. He blinked, and patted his sternum through the open fold of his shirt, but there was nothing on his skin or hands but nervous sweat.