Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones

1. Thousands of years ago, powerful families try to take control of the intergalactic space consortium. For the sake of peace, it is determined that five Reigners shall be chosen from five families. They will be elected every ten years years.

2. To ensure fairness, the Bannus is created. It will put the candidates through various scenarios and elect the five people it considers suitable as Reigners.

3. Martellian, one of the Reigners, takes a young Orm Pender under his wing.

4. Orm betrays Martellian and wrenches control over the Bannus, cheating the system. He, his girlfriend, his girlfriend's brother, and two more of their circle, install themselves as permanent Reigners.

5. Martellian is exiled to Earth, where he proceeds to raise heirs to fight for him against the Reigners, since he is banned from doing so himself. As Merlin, he creates Arthur. As Wolf, he creates Fitela.

6. Orm, now Reigner One, puts Martellian in a stass tomb, along with Arthur and Fitela. The reprogrammed Bannus is put in the same place to reinforce the imprisonment.

7. The five Reigners manage to keep young(ish) and in power for more than a thousand years.

8. The Reigners use descendants of Martellian as Servants to do their killing for them. In modern time, the Servant is Mordion, who is raised under horrid conditions to become their loyal assassin.

9. Under the firm name Rayner Hexwood, the Reigners use Earth for its valuable flint. The people of Earth have no idea just how valuable the flint is.

10. Mordion keeps a telepathic connection with Martellian, Arthur, Fitela, and eventually Vierran of Guaranty (who is younger than him and thus shows up late). None of them know the others by name, only by epiteths. Mordion and Vierran also meet in person. Vierran doesn't recognize Mordion, but is drawn to his role as the Servant.

11. The House of Guaranty are in opposition to the Reigners, but unable to do anything about it.

12. Harrison Scudamore, a clerk who has scammed his way into Rayner Hexwood, finds the Bannus. He manages to start its field of power, in the hope of creating a virtual reality role playing game

13. The Bannus field starts drawing people in. It also starts mingling with the field of Hexwood, which, being a wood, is connected to the Great Forest that once was, and has magic of its own.

14. The Bannus wakes the three people in the stass tombs: Martellian, Arthur, and Fitela. Since the world they know is Arthuriana, that's the illusion they create inside the wood. Martellian is reshaped by the Bannus into a small child. Arthur becomes the outlaw Artegal.

15. Outside the wood, the Bannus field spreads further, but with a setting more familiar to the people there, i.e. modern Earth. Fitela seems to make it out of the forest, since he becomes part of the modern-Earth world as Martin, a greengrocer's son.

16. W. Madden, one of the Rayner Hexwood maintenance staff, sends a letter to his superiors, which eventually reaches Controller Borasus of Albion.

17. Controller Borasus calls Earth, which unbeknownst to him permits the Bannus field to spread across communication lines through the galaxy. He also calls Earth Headquarters, run by Sir John Bedford, who is alarmed to hear the news.

18. Controller Borasus goes down to Earth to find out what is wrong, and is pulled into the Arthuriana setting as Sir Bors.

19. The Reigners are contacted. Reigner Two sets out to find out what is happening. Along with Mordion and John Bedford, he heads to Hexwood, where all three are pulled into the Arthuriana setting as well: Reigner Two as King Ambitas, John Bedford as Sir Bedefer, and Mordion as a hermit.

20 . The scenes within Hexwood do not happen chronologically; something may be very early for one of the people involved and very late for another. Events that take mere moments appear to take years. (Typical fantasy wood!)

20. Since Reigner two isn't heard from, Reigner Four is sent out. He becomes Sir Fors in the king's court.

21. Reigner Five is sent out. He keeps his own memories even as he is sent into Arthuriana, but is immediately tricked by the Bannus into exploding himself. Refusing to accept that he is dead, he settles in Mordion's abandoned hermit hut.

22. Reigners One and Three decide to go to Earth themselves. Reigner Three has sussed out that Vierran is romantically interested in Mordion, and brings her along as a maid/bargaining chip.

23. Reigner Three enters Arthuriana as the king's fiancée, Morgan le Trey. Reigner One is transformed into a dragon. Vierran gets a dual role, as a lady in the king's court, and as Ann Stavely, a modern-day grocer's daughter living right outside of Hexwood.

24. At some point, Vierran's actual parents, who have been plotting the Reigners' downfall and hence arrested by them, are pulled into the field as Ann's greengrocer parents. Fitela becomes her brother Martin.

25. (Third chapter only!) "Ann", sick in bed, see strange things happening around Hexwood. She is not seeing them in order, but neither she nor we know that at this point.

26. Ann, feeling better, enters into the forest, where she wakes Mordion from a stass tomb. He has memories of being stuck in the tomb for millennia, but those are really Martellian's memories. From their mixed blood, Mordion appears to create the child Hume, though this is really Martellian de-aged.

27. Mordion the hermit raises Hume with the help of Ann and a robot called Yam, in random chronological order. Hume wants to be a knight and fight dragons. Ann intermittently returns to her parents and their seemingly ordinary life.

28. Running out of food in the castle, the knights ransack the nearby (modern day) town. This starts a revolt, led by the outlaw Artegal (Arthur), and consisting of people both from Earth and from the rest of the galaxy, including Vierran's/Ann's parents.

29. In a motel room, Vierran listens to a recorded message of herself and realizes she has lived the same scenes multiple times. She remembers her time as Ann and figures out that the Bannus field is much wider than the wood.

30. Vierran goes to find Mordion, but encounters Reigner Five instead. He chases her, but breaks his neck, drowns in the river, and is forced to admit that he was dead all along.

31. Still with her own memories, Vierran returns to her role as a court lady. Her cousin Siri is also there, as Lady Sylvia.

32. Mordion arrives at the castle, pretending to be a magician controlling a mechanical man (Yam). Hume becomes a squire.

33. The knights set out to punish the outlaws. They encounter a dragon (Reigner One), and Sir Fors/Reigner Four is eaten.

34. Reigner Three turns Mordion into a dragon. With the aid of the Bannus, he starts facing his own awful memories.

35. Returning to human form, Mordion enters the outlaw camp with Martin and Sir John Bedford. The outlaws are very suspicious until Artegal/Arthur recognizes Mordion as one of the voices in his head.

36. Hume volunteers to fight a dragon, believing it to be Mordion. He is horrified to find Reigner One instead, who has recently killed Sir Harrisoun (Harrison Scudamore). Hume calls Mordion for help, and with joined effort they defeat the dragon.

37. Reigners Three and Two try to poison each other and are turning into dragons. Mordion kills them both.

38. Mordion realizes that Yam is actually the Bannus and demands that he puts a stop to this.

39.  After Yam/The Bannus has had a moment of gloating over the dying Reigner One, Hume pulls out his sword from the dragon's body, killing him.

39. Everyone starts sorting out who they are to each other. Yam declares the five new Reigners: Mordion, Vierran/Ann, Martellian/Hume, Arthur/Artegal and Fitela/Martin. They reluctantly agree to rule the galaxy, not sure that the Bannus can be trusted.