Izayoi Summaries

A small "street gang" (which is just a group of friends at this point) made up of Soran, Finn, and Rhys get caught stealing by the Imperial guards. They split up and run, Rhys getting caught and losing his eye. Soran runs through the streets and through a hole in a wall that leads to a beautiful, sprawling garden, where he meets a Nihite girl his age named Tyra. He realizes this is the palace grounds, but they continue meeting and build a frienship. Eventually Tyra is sent away. Before she leaves, Tyra and Soran exchange bracelets they made each other as a token of their friendship.

Years later, Rhys is now the leader of an actual street gang, and Soran is part of it, of course. They have orchestrated some civil disruption and other non-lethal attacks against the crown and other Nihite royalty, so Rhys decides to up the stakes: they will kidnap the princess, who will be celebrating her return to the capital with a parade.

The plan works, and the princess is revealed to be Tyra! Her and Soran recognize each other, and Soran convinces Rhys to not actually hurt Tyra. The princess doesn't mind being essentially a ransom token, however, since she is glad to get away from the mostly racist and classist royal class (and especially her overbearing mother, Queen Medha).

Since everyone is now wanted in the capital, Sinia, Soran's sister, offers to help get them out of the city for safety. Soran and Tyra then sneak away from the rest of the group and travel to the Twin Free Cities of Sol and Luna through the Underground, a secret tunnel system that only Twilite know about. They spend time in Luna, and eventually secretly get married while there.

At this point they are wanted not only by the Nihite royalty and guard, but also the rest of Rhys' Twilite gang, since they left without telling anyone. War is about to break out between the two factions, so they both decide to return to Kannon to try and stop the imminent fighting.

Thanks to the tunnels all over the capital, they are able to get back into the palace without being detected. Tyra confronts her mother to get her to stop fighting, but Medha ignores her completely, not caring about her wellbeing and using her kidnapping as an excuse to attack the Twilite in the town. Medha then attacks Soran, but Tyra is able to protect him at the cost of being mortally wounded. Tyra ends up killing Medha and then dies herself soon after.

Since Soran and Tyra were married, he would technically be named king, but many of the royal advisers were against this. Thankfully, due to the backing of the master of the arcives, Horai, and the captain of the guard, Phillip, Soran was properly named king, becoming the first Twilite king in hundreds of years.