SOLVED.Red haired female mage with huge cat companion. [s]

[Kyle]

Fantasy books came out late 90's early 00's. I believe it was a quartet series (4 books.) Starts off the heroine is a young teenager (this is before that YA crap existed so it's not YA) Mages rule the city-state she grows up in, she bounces back and forth between learning magic at the mage school and learning how to actually fight with the city guard (sword-fighting in particular) especially from the guard captain whom she falls in love with.

There are different races that don't really know about each other, the human mages, a race of winged humans that live way up in the tops of the mountains, Leviathan in the sea that don't really participate in the world, and huge sentient cats. One of whom the main heroine becomes close companions with who ends up being the ruler of her cat people. There are a crap more details but that should narrow it down.

Very long synopsis short -
- There are (4?) super magical items that the plot revolves around, a chalice, a sword and I forget the others.
- The main characters baby is cursed and is turned into a wolf
- The main bad guy is the classic good guy Head Mage at the beginning of the book, get goes crazy after getting one of the power magical items.

Thanks for the help.

[Genesistrine]

Aurian?

[Kyle]

Genesistrine wrote: "Aurian?"

What a boss. Thanks. I don't even remember the books being particularly good, just nostalgia. Thanks again.

[Genesistrine]

Cheers!

[Kris]

A popular book - it's been requested and found 10 times in this group.

[Kyle]

Kris wrote: "A popular book - it's been requested and found 10 times in this group."

You'd think if it was so popular we'd have remembered it better, 10 times seems like a lot. Glad for the help.