Chapter 1

The Heartstone of Aethel was gone.

Stolen.

Magic, the very lifeblood of our Order' s domain, flickered like a dying candle.

Chaos was coming.

We, the Lumina Clan, traditional guardians of sites linked to the Heartstone, were blamed.

Every last one of my kin, executed.

By the Order' s decree.

Swift. Brutal. Final.

Only I, Selene, was spared, or so it seemed. I was in the capital, with my husband, High Councilor Orion.

My clan, my family, all ashes.

And for what? For a crime we didn' t commit.

The injustice burned, a cold fire in my hollow chest.

To "atone" for my clan's supposed sin, they forced me into a living hell.

My life-force, bound to the damaged Heartstone' s energy matrix.

A millennium.

One thousand years of agonizing servitude, a human battery to keep the failing artifact stable.

Pain was my constant companion, my only reality.

My body wasted away, but my spirit, somehow, clung on.

Then, after the thousand years, Orion appeared.

My husband.

He had seemingly fought for me, securing this "merciful" sentence.

He used rare, priceless resources from the Order' s vaults.

He restored my physical form, piece by agonizing piece.

He even advocated for the return of my Lumina birthright, my innate magic.

I looked at him, this man who had pulled me back from the brink.

I believed he loved me.

Deeply. Unconditionally.

How could I not? He was my savior, my anchor in a world that had taken everything.

Hope, a fragile thing, began to bloom in my ravaged heart.

We would rebuild. We would find a new future.

I was a fool.