The world was divided.
To the east lay Magoria, the kingdom of magic—its skies bright with soaring towers of crystal, its people born with the gift of elements in their veins. To the west sprawled Elarion, the kingdom of mortals—humble villages, people living by sweat and steel alone.
For centuries, the two lands coexisted in fragile tension. Magoria's rulers saw themselves as higher beings. To the humans of Elarion, they were tyrants cloaked in gold.
It was inevitable that one day, blood would spill.
But before that war began, a single desperate choice changed everything.
In Magoria, Serenya Althain walked the palace halls in silence. Once a princess, she was now treated as little more than a servant to her father's brother's daughter.
When she whispered to Kael Veynar her lover, the court guard she trusted, "We should escape together," he did not hesitate. Together, they fled across the borders, vanishing into the kingdom of humans.
Far from Magoria's glittering cruelty, they found a new life. But they did not come empty-handed. They brought magic into a land that had never known it—and with magic came power.
Within months, Serenya and Kael crowned themselves king and queen of Elarion. Those who opposed them fell beneath their magic; those who knelt were promised prosperity.
Yet power breeds envy. Magoria's true rulers soon learned of the upstart king and queen. They would not wait long before moving to crush them.
Serenya and Kael needed a weapon.
It was Kael's former comrade, a guard who had once served Magoria's palace, who whispered of the Chamber of Origins: a place where unborn children could be bound to ancient power.
"Only kings and queens may enter," the man warned. "Only the unborn may receive its blessing. But the stronger the gift, the greater the risk. The child may not survive—or may live without a heart."
Still, desperation outweighed fear.
On a stormy night, Serenya carved her blood upon the chamber door. The stone groaned, and the gate opened. Shadows whispered. A voice older than kingdoms filled the chamber:
"You seek power for your child."
"Yes," Serenya answered, clutching her belly. "He must be strong—strong enough to defy kings and armies."
"Then choose the measure of his strength. From one to ten."
Serenya's lips trembled. "Ten."
"Foolish mother. Those who choose ten rarely cradle their child alive."
Kael's hand gripped hers tightly. "Then… five. Five is enough."
But Serenya's eyes blazed. "No. My son will not be weak. I choose ten."
The chamber fell silent.
"So be it. But remember—great power breeds great cruelty. Your son may live with strength, but not with peace."
One by one, elements rose around them: blazing fire, crushing earth, endless water, eternal flame, blinding light, shrouding shadow. At the center, a silver moon.
"What is this?" Kael whispered. "Blue eternal flame among powers?"
The chamber quaked. The other elements vanished, leaving only the eternal flame.
"The father has spoken. The child shall bear the mark of the flame."
Before them, the eternal flame coiled, searing into Serenya's womb. She cried out, clutching Kael's arm as a silver crescent burned upon her skin.
"Your child has been marked. His book of power will appear when he is born. But whether he accepts the gift… or is destroyed by it, depends on his blood."
The voice whispered one last warning:
"He will live in fire. He will feel agony every dawn. Only a bond stronger than death can calm the flame. Without it… he will destroy everything."
Nine months later, Prince Raviel Veynar was born. His tiny body carried the glowing mark of flame across his chest. Even as a newborn, the heat rolling off him warned that he was no ordinary prince.
From the moment he could walk, Raviel's hands carried destruction. By twenty-three, he had grown into a man feared by all, hunting humans for sport, taking lives as one might pluck flowers.
And while the world whispered his name in terror, another fate was stirring in the shadows—one that could either save him… or destroy him.