Question for the fantasy fans here. Can anyone remember a book/series with a character in it call add something like (but probably not exactly because Google’s not getting a hit) “Gorynell Deese”? He was a magician with very dark skin and white hair. He could do a spell called “folding” that folded the earth beneath him when he walked which meant he could cover large distances on foot.

It wasn’t WoT. There were two rival magician factions. One was heavily ruled-based and treated magic almost like a science and the other (to which this character subscribed) was more bout liberalism and treated it like an art.  We’re fairly sure the author was female, as were the protagonists in the story (half sisters, we think).

We’re pretty sure the author was female, and it must’ve been a trailblazer of the era because it was a fantasy book that likely passed the Bechdel test. We think the author may have died part way through the trilogy and it went unfinished. And we’ve remembered that the underground resistance used to send secret messages using plants.

Both our versions were paperback, had a picture of a young blonde lady in front a pool looking straight to camera.
At the very end, the big reveal was that the protagonist sister wasn’t fine after the big fight - she was horrifically burned/scared on one side and was using illusion magic to hide it from friends/family.