2021 is an exciting year in the world of Susan Dennard’s Witchlands series! From paperback releases to the next book in the series (looking at you, Witchshadow), there’s a lot to get hype about. Today we’re celebrating the paperback release of Sightwitch—now with a STUNNING new cover—by revisiting our GIF recap of the book!
By Zakiya Jamal
Even though Bloodwitch still feels so far away, it’ll be here sooner than you know it! In prep, we’ve been recapping the Witchlands books in the form of GIFs. So far we’ve been going forward in time with Truthwitch and then Windwitch, but now we’re recapping Sightwitch, the novella that takes us back to a year before Truthwitch begins, following Sightwitch Ryber “Ry” Fortiza, and evem further in the past, following Sightwitch Eridysi “Dysi”.
To keep everything straight, we’ll say everything with Ryber is the “Present” and everything with Dysi is the “Past”. Now, are you ready?
PRESENT
Ryber was having a hard time because she still hadn’t been Summoned to the mountain to get the Sight from the Goddess Sirmaya, but her Threadsister, Tanzi, was.
Except Tanzi didn’t return the following night like she was supposed to, and eventually all the Sightwitch Sisters were also Summoned and Ry was then left all alone.
One day, when Ry passed the scrying pool she saw a vision and learned she only had 12 hours to save the Sightwitch Sisters before it was too late.
PAST
One thousand years ago, Dysi was a Sightwitch without the Sight, just like Ry. Dysi was attempting to create doorways to other places in the Witchlands so people could escape from the Exalted Ones…it wasn’t going well.
Then a man came to leave his two daughters, Lisbet and Cora, at the Convent because he couldn’t care for them and Dysi agreed to take them in.
PRESENT
While looking for her Sisters, Ry stumbled upon a man who she contemplated killing but then he saved her life so she changed her mind.
Unfortunately, the man then became unconscious and while trying to nurse him back to health Ry discovered he was a Nubrevnan captain.
Apparently the man didn’t know how he ended up in the mountain or what his name was so Ry decided to call him Captain and then they went looking for her Sisters.
PAST
Lisbet was summoned to get the Sight and Cora was sick leaving Dysi to meet their dad alone, and thus a new ship began to sail.
When Lisbet returned with the Sight she told Dysi they had to prepare a path for a Sightwitch Sister and a Paladin who would travel through the mountain, and they had to do it right then because Lisbet and everyone else wouldn’t be around to do it later.
Later, Dysi finally made a doorway and ended up at the Rook King’s court where she met a general who turned out to be Lisbet and Cora’s father. They fought but then they kissed!
Dysi then completed all the doors but the Exalted Ones attacked. Lisbet said they were betrayed and the only way they would survive was by going to sleep in the ice until it was time to wake up again.
PRESENT
As they continued walking through the mountain, Ry explained to Captain that back in Lisbet and Dysi’s time Paladins, or the Twelve, were the only people who had magic until they turned on each other and died without being reincarnated.
Then, Captain began to hear voices and the magic inside him began to overpower him, cleaving him, but thankfully, it stopped. Captain then told Ry that the voices in his head were betrayed and that they also felt like memories.
Moving right along, the Captain used his air magic to get them to the next door because the bridge was missing and then the pair parted ways.
Ry soon realized she was in Dysi’s tomb and terrified her sisters had actually been called to the mountain for sleeping, just like Dysi, Ry hurried to find them.
When Ry found the Sisters, they were almost covered in ice. They told her that they all must sleep so Sirmaya could use their power, including Ry’s.
But then Tanzi told Ry not to do it and that there was another way to heal Sirmaya but before Tanzi could explain, she and the other Sisters were completely covered in ice.
Ry decided not to sleep with her Sisters, but instead to go out into the world and try to save people that way. It was then that Ry’s eyes finally turned silver.
Ry was able to find the bridge to escape the mountain and then she found Captain but he was cleaving again. Using her bell and singing the song he’d sung to her in the mountain she saved him.
Kullen (Captain) then explained how he was caught in a trap, and then lost and regained his memories when he went through the door into the mountain.
Unfortunately, Kullen had to return to his Threadbrother, Prince Merik, and once he left he would forget meeting Ry and everything that happened because of the Convent’s glamour.
After Kullen left Ry began her own journey to discover what happened to the Paladins and find a way to save her Sisters.
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