The Chains of Capitulation (Journey Book 3)

‘I will forewarn you, when the last of these shadows has been swept away to reveal the brutal reality of your existence, all that awaits you is the embrace of bitter despair. Do you have the courage to confront your true identity without the protective mantle of delusion or bias, Daughter?’ Myrhia to Islena Doraux. After surviving the harrowing trek through the Land of Shades and locating the legendary king, Islena’s burgeoning hope is crushed by the truth of her own insurmountable inner darkness.
Against immense odds, Islena survives personal abjection and the horrors of the Upper Lands and miraculously defeats the Morticant Hybrid that has usurped control of her traveling companion’s body. After tenaciously overcoming every obstacle while crossing the Land of Shades and reaching the Great Western Ocean, she finally locates the legendary king Artumas. Islena is suffused by the hope that he will help her locate the two remaining Proclamations…the tangible manifestations of power necessary to vanquish the Myrhia, the Mother of Iniquity.
During the course of her grueling journey, Islena experiences the nascent stirrings of memories from a thousand past lives...the resonating echoes that have forged the shape and direction of history in a thousand different worlds. No longer nebulous fragments, these past incarnations speak to her of the pivotal roles they have played in the epic struggles and grand dramas...the critical and often tragic junctures that defined their worlds. Through these revelations, Islena Doraux comes to grasp that she is the culmination of this recurring persona...a mortal vessel that plays host to an immortal spirit, whose death will inevitably lead to her rebirth...just as nightfall inexorably yields to dawn. To her horror, she learns that each rebirth heralds the onset of a new chapter of bloody conflict, suffering human misery.
While trying to solve the puzzle of this seemingly pointless unending cycle of tragedy, Islena is plunges through the seemingly innumerable layers of past existence in an effort to discover her genesis...and the perplexing purpose she was intended to serve.
Above the cloth of the world, the eternal triangle of conflict spins…a recurring cycle of misery and incessant struggle of which she is the pivotal element…tearing asunder the illusions that have characterized her life. As she embarks on the next leg of her epic journey, the final layer of Islena’s sequestered identity is stripped away by an epiphany that will reveal the irreducible core of blackness that resides in the fabric of her nature. In the moment of terrible insight…Islena Doraux comes to divine that it is she who poses the greatest threat to everything she strives to protect. To avert this calamity, she is left with no recourse but to willingly accept the chains of capitulation that her avowed enemy has held out to her.