Raybearer (2020)

Tarisai longs to belong to a council whose members share a magical bond, while an instruction from her mother threatens the very connection she wants. Ifueko builds a multicultural empire around questions of loyalty, inheritance and who is made to pay for unity. A welcoming route into a large invented world through an immediately understandable need for affection. This young-adult duology begins here; coercive family ties and imperial violence complicate its warmth.