Chapter 1

My name was Seraphina, and I was once the Guardian of the Veil in Aethelburg.

Aethelburg wasn't a place you could find on any map of Earth, it was where souls rested before their next life.

My duty was to give each soul the Draught of Serene Passage.

This drink made sure they wouldn't carry old pains into new lives, it kept a kind of cosmic peace.

My husband, Malakor, was the High Custodian here, a powerful man.

Our son was Kael.

Malakor had a younger sister, Lyra, and he always let her have her way.

I also held the Cipher of Thresholds, an artifact from my family, passed down through generations of Guardians. It could open secret paths between worlds.

Then, the Calamity happened.

Someone switched the sacred Draught with a Tincture of Unfettered Memory.

Souls started being reborn on Earth remembering everything from before.

Chaos erupted.

Old wars flared up, past traumas haunted the living, societies crumbled. It was a mess.

And I, the Guardian, got the blame.

The Aethelburg Conclave, our ruling council, pointed their fingers straight at me.

I told them I was innocent, I begged them.

It didn't matter.

They sentenced me to five hundred years in the Wailing Chasm.

It' s a terrible dimension, just endless despair and sorrow.

When those five hundred years were finally over, I was a wreck, barely a shadow of myself.

Malakor and Kael were there to meet me.

"We never stopped believing in you, Seraphina," Malakor said, his voice thick with what I thought was emotion.

Kael nodded, his eyes full of a son's love, or so I believed.

They took me back to our estate.

After centuries of pure misery and isolation, their words, their presence, it was like water in a desert.

I clung to them.

I became quiet, obedient, just grateful they still wanted me.

I would have done anything for them.

My own will felt like it had been scoured away in the Chasm, and their apparent loyalty was the only thing I had left.