Tessie Jayme

Samurai culture was at its peak during the 13th and 14th centuries in Japan. The Emperor was honored as the imperial ruler, but it was the Shogunate which held the true power.When Japan's empire launches into civil war between the Northern and Southern courts in the early 14th century, samurai find themselves allied to daimyos loyal to opposing emperors. This was a time when the Shogunate found its members fighting against each other, when fathers fought against their sons, brothers against brothers, and when two samurai of opposing clans, Fujiwara no Mariko and Minamoto no Akihiro, end up on opposite sides of the war. This means they must battle against each other. They are not only samurai, they are husband and wife with three very young children.What will it take for two samurai warriors to fulfill their honorable duty to their opposing overlords without compromising their honorable love for each other? This is a story of samurai duty and honor pitted against two people's undying love and passionate loyalty to each other. It begs the question: Does honor supersede love?

Freshly graduated from the Special Abilities Training Institute (SATI), four barely-out-of-their-teens new SATI agents must journey to another planet in the galaxy to use their extrasensory abilities to save Planet Earth. In Book 1, SATI learns that certain factions of Lyrica, a neighboring planet in the Milky Way Galaxy, is planning to kidnap the world leaders of Earth in order to take over the planet. Four newly graduated agents of SATI are sent to Lyrica to sabotage those plans. These four agents (Ryndell, Sarin, Brig and Dwylla) are gifted with special abilities which SATI believes are powerful enough to accomplish their mission. Ryndell and Sarin are Mental Probers, gifted with telepathic skills; Brig is a Speedrote, able to mentally photograph anything he sees; Dwylla is a Blocker, able to block anyone from reading her mind, a valuable asset in the Lyrican telepathic culture. Missiles strike their ship as they prepare to land in Lyrica, and the agents pair off to improvise separate journeys to reach the Lyrican ruler city of Mynamala. Landing in separate areas of the forest, Ryndell and Dwylla team to battle creatures of the forest. Sarin and Brig are taken hostage by the forest village of Halya, which they must win over to help them in their goal. Book 1 ends when the two teams find each other and proceed on their journey to the ruler city, more determined than ever to accomplish their mission.

Ryndell, Sarin, Brig and Dwylla have now reached Mynamala, the ruler city which controls the galactic trade agreement between Earth and Lyrica. SATI intel indicates that it is within this city that the enemy factions are plotting to take over Earth. The mission, already impossible, has become more complex. Powerfully gifted as they are, the SATI agents have become beset with the dangerous follies of youth. Sarin has fallen in love with the Halyan High Chief Heir, who might very well be an enemy of Earth. Dwylla and Ryndell are in a relationship which threatens to distract them from their mission. Hormones, inexperience and the challenge of an alien world confront them at every step. As they enter the political world of the ruler city, they make shocking discoveries and find welcome allies, among them the First Heir to the Mynamalan rulership. Brig has an affair with the wife of the Prime Manimus; Ryndell learns a teleportation technique; and Dwylla and Sarin are captured and tortured nearly to death. Meanwhile, thinking that the four SATI companions were killed on their journey to Lyrica, SATI has sent a second group to save Earth.

Philippines has surrendered to the Japanese, and General Douglas MacArthur has retreated with the promise to return. The Filipino people's defense of their homeland has failed, and while they have surrendered to the Japanese occupation, they refuse to see themselves as defeated. Along with his fellow soldiers, Torio is malnutrioned and sick with malaria, but at least he manages to elude the 25-mile Bataan Death March. Rissing's friend, Juan Delacruz, is not as fortunate. He watches firsthand the atrocities perpetrated by Japanese soldiers, as well as unexpected acts of kindness from them. By now the Japanese have infiltrated all of the Philippine islands, and the Filipino people are using guerrilla tactics to rebel against their presence. In Manila, Lucing faces her conflicting emotions for the Camp Commander. In Panay, Torio signs up to work in a Japanese mining camp with his family. Responsible for the Camp Commander's laundry, Rissing earns his respect and trust, and the Commander proves instrumental in her family's survival in camp. Rumors of America's plans to liberate the Philippines prompts Torio to move his family out of the mining camp. Then news of MacArthur's imminent return electrifies the Filipino people.

The Japanese are on the defensive as General Douglas MacArthur infiltrates the Philippines to organize liberation of the Filipino people from Japanese occupation. When the Japanese learn that Torio has joined the guerrillas, they actively go after his family in a retaliatory maneuver. Rissing is on the run in the Philippine jungles. Defended by a little Aeta hunter her family adopts, her friend's teenage sons, and her own two pre-teen boys, Rissing is on the run. Her group battles Japanese patrols even as Rissing goes into labor with her fifth child. Torio rescues his family and they make it to safety. As MacArthur makes his promised return, the Filipino people prepare for the battle to reclaim their country. In Manila, a pregnant Lucing says goodbye to her Camp Commander lover at Santo Tomas, knowing she will probably never see him again. On February 3, 1945, Santo Tomas is liberated by American troops. On September 2, 1945, the Japanese officially surrender to the Americans. The separations, challenges and intense events of the war has frayed and torn the fabric of Torio and Rissing's marriage, but somehow it has survived. However, back in a virtually destroyed Manila, Rissing decides that this dark and shadowed place is not where her children should grow up. It's not that she's abandoning her beloved Philippines. She is merely designing a better future for her children, and that means setting her sights on America... land of the free.