Exile, Magus

Pentaz Muix, a young man native to a reclusive nation of dwarves, feels he has no choice but to flee his homeland in order to escape punishment after revealing his study of magic in order to save his people. As he takes his first clumsy steps out from the isolation of his island home into the wide and varied world of the mainland, he searches for a family to replace the one he has lost. Along the way he meets a wandering warrior named Buscidia and falls in love with her, but his own fear of losing her may well spell their undoing.

While he explores the mainland and its many perils, he is unaware that his homeland has not let go of him as easily as he believes. Unbeknownst to him, he is pursued by the last surviving member of his brother Palkaz. Their reunion follows closely on the heels of Pentaz' biggest mistake and tragedy, and they find themselves clashing amidst a danger neither of them had imagined. Can they put aside their differences long enough to survive?

This starts a series following the Muix family as well as those who interact with and influence them, starting with Pentaz. It is a non-traditional fantasy narrative in that its conflict does not come from some dark power or evil empire to be overcome, but instead from Pentaz' struggles in trying to find a place for himself after fleeing his homeland to escape punishment for practicing magic. The bulk of the narrative follows his relationship with the half-dwarf Buscidia, and hinges on his desperate and unspoken need to find a new family after losing his own. I have a hard time calling it a true love story, being in my mind more a study of his mind as he tries to overcome the solitude of his situation.

The road is a dangerous place to live leading to plenty of action and moments of both lightness and darkness. Tropes are also played with in ways that most will find fresh such as the human king with a fascination for gnomes so strong that he employs them almost exclusively in his dreams of a new world.