A young girl becomes an outcast after manifesting strange powers. A bow-maker trades with orcs and makes his first kill after being embarrassed on the hunt.

Short stories are not really my thing, but these were included in the box set with the first two books, and give us a bit of history of the two main characters. If I’d read these first and independently, they would not have sent me looking for the rest of this series. Knowing what I do about these characters, it’s best to read them after the first two books, because otherwise they don’t mean anything, especially Natalia’s story. Ignorant people treat her as a witch, so that when she’s offered a chance to become something bigger than herself, she takes it. There is more characterization from Stanislav, the mage hunter, who feels for her and her kind, as opposed to the one who betrays them. Athgar gets more character moments, in the days leading up to the attack that destroyed his people. The story seems to be about impressing a girl, but ends up with a transformation, instead. It was a welcome twist, and showed the way the orcs could accept him the way his own people couldn’t. Still, I didn’t feel the need to continue the story based on the teasers given in either one. They were interesting, but nothing more. 

There are two stories in this set. The first is called The Awakening, which tells the story of Natalia, who freezes water as a very young girl, and calls fish to talk to her when she’s older. She and her family are branded as witches and she is shunned, which is typical of this kind of society. I guess the Family doesn’t associate with these kinds of people, though they are so close to the domain of mages.

Natalia is barely in this story, which follows her over years. The most interesting part comes in the form of Stanilsav, the mage hunter who is sent after her. He hires a team to gather information –I guess he never knows when confirmation will come way too easy, as it did in this story. He didn’t need his team, but the story focuses on the betrayal. I knew immediately that the man who said his horse’s shoe needed fixing was going to steal the money from the woman and kill her, where Stanislav didn’t. He was too focused on protecting Natalia and trying to make her mother’s life better. The man eventually ambushes them as she is being brought into the city, and Natalia sends frost to fend him off.

The big thing about Natalia is that nobody in living history has ever manifested powers at such a young age. They sent Stanislav and his team to check out the rumors, and are surprised when they are true. It's a strange development in Nathalia's character, as she was shunned and trained as a normal witch, barely given any special treatment among the Family.

The second story is Into the Fire, and is about Athgar in the days leading up to the attack that destroys his village.

It turns out that Athgar is a terrible hunter, even as the rest of the village puts him right in front of the charging prey. His spear, for many hunts, goes astray, while the kill goes to a handsome rival named Caladin. He gets embarrassed at the after-hunt tavern celebration, and then told that he’s not good enough for his betrothed, who then switches immediately to Caladin. It seems that she’s been eyeing the hunter for some time, or else the women of his village are very fickle.

Instead of being depressed about his change of fate, Athgar is relieved. I guess the pressure is off. His sister Ethwyn, on the other hand, is being pursued by several men, and seems to enjoy being frivolous herself, to the point where Athgar gets annoyed with her for ignoring the family business of making bows and arrows. When the orcs (Durgash and Kargen) show up, Athgar shows them his new bow, while Ethwyn shrugs off their presence as inconsequential.

So it’s when Athgar goes hunting with a bow instead of a spear, and uses orc tactics, he catches a boar, and brings it back to the village. Of course everyone is congratulatory and think they judged him too soon. The insincerity is laughable, though Athgar doesn’t seem to notice. He’s even given the choice of taking his former betrothed back. Of course, Athgar refuses.

Then the attack on the village begins, and Athgar sees the man with the scar, and is knocked out into his burning hut. Where Natalia’s awakening happened in her prequel, Athgar has to wait. Maybe the fire in his hut triggered his own awakening, which we would see in the first book of the series.

The two stories suffer from the same dialog problems as the novels, but that’s not a surprise, as it’s the same author and probably the same timeframe. I wonder if this is just his signature dialog, or if there has been criticism that might have led him to improve it in later books.

It was a good idea to put these stories after the first two books, and not before. Without knowing who the characters would turn into, the stories themselves are meaningless, and don’t hold much interest. Why should I care about them at this early stage? They are more like preludes than anything. As standalone stories, I would not be rushing out to see what happens next. Only after getting to know the characters in Ashes and Embers do we care enough about their beginnings –or can even understand where they are coming from.