Warlords of the Black Sun

The first book of the Scattered Sun Trilogy In the war-torn continent of Nevermore, four great guilds rise from the ashes: the Brotherhood of Iron, the Crimson Lions, the Guild of the Elven Beasts, and the Dragons of the East. Each rules cities and regions like miniature kingdoms, battling openly and in secret for control over the greatest power... the Aether Serums. These ancient serums, inherited from the era of the Gray Gods, grant their users immense magical powers... but at a steep price: they deform the body, burn the soul, and turn their bearers into prey for the sin they carry within. Amid this hell, a mysterious man named Kilan Reith emerges, a mercenary in a corrupt company called the Ninth Hand, carrying a shadowy past... Kilan does not seek glory... but truth, and blood. On the other side of the warboard appears Prince Valrik, the Golden Demon. A fallen prince from the Kingdom of Erenval, he wields one of the most powerful known Aether Serums; yet Valrik does not fight for glory or revenge... but to "break free from his fate," for he is a slave to a secret older than the world itself. In a world ruled by warlords, plagued by sins, and where magic lines tear reality apart, the story of the Balanced Thread begins — where no one is innocent, and no one dies easily...