The Rogue Disciple Descends

Isaac Stuart has three months to live. Sage Avery, the master he has trained under in the mountains since he was a boy, finally tells him why. When the Carters wiped out his family fifteen years ago, Isaac was beaten so badly that seven pieces of his spirit were knocked out of his body, and without them he cannot live much longer. The pieces have lodged in seven women, each of whom carries a flame-shaped mark on her body, and he has to find every one of them himself. What forces the explanation out of Sage Avery is that Isaac has started coughing blood every time he trains. Shortly before that a woman warrior had come up the mountain wanting to study under Sage Avery, mistaken Isaac for the master, and been turned away by him. Sage Avery sends Isaac down. Below, the Carters control the royal family and through it the country, and four great houses are tied up in each other's schemes. A fight over who will lead the Carters breaks out, and at a birthday party thrown by another family a Carter is poisoned. Isaac is out for revenge, and the friends he picks up along the way either help him or sell him out. He also takes on protecting a woman from the Carters' threats, which pulls him into debt troubles and family disputes.