This is a Trilogy written by Anne Bishop. From begining to end the characters are so well crafted that I found it hard to think that they weren't actual people. The witches, or wiccanfae as they are sometimes called, are being slaughtered. A movement to make all women, not just witches, submit to the will of men began long ago in the lands to the east and has finally reached the lands of the west, wear the magic on the land is the most powerful. I would love to discuss these books with others. The way all the Fae seem so touched by Ari doesn't seem so strange, because I feel the same way. I would wish to have someone like he near so that I could someone absorb her goodness, for lack of a better word. Perhaps it is reminder to not forget where we come from. Perhaps a warning to always be kind. Perhaps it simply is a lessen to say you should be happy with what you have. For if those things have been done, women across the land would never have been so brutalized.