Touchstone

On her last day of high school, Cassandra Devlin walks out of exams and into a forest. Surrounded by the wrong sort of trees and animals never featured in any nature documentary, Cass is only sure of one thing: Alone, she will be lucky to survive. The sprawl of abandoned, blockish buildings Cass discovers offers her only more puzzles.

In the months since Cassandra Devlin walked off Earth onto another planet, she has grappled with everything from making blankets to helping psychics battle the memories of monsters. Not able to find a way home, she has instead gained friends and a purpose. Unfortunately, that purpose brings with it the pressure of being more than a little valuable, and those she has befriended are also her guards, ordered to explore and control her abilities to find out just what it is a touchstone can do.

Cassandra Devlin doesn’t know what she's for. But she knows she's running out of time. Since Cass was rescued from the abandoned world of Muina, the Aussie teen has proven more than useful to the people of Tare. Expeditions to their home world no longer end in slaughter. The teaching city of Kalasa has been unlocked. After years of searching for answers, they are starting to make progress. But space is tearing itself apart. Ionoth attack in ever-greater numbers. And "the useful stray" has been injured so many times that the Tarens hesitate to use her for fear of losing her.