Breath Unearthed
Khalen Rasheen’s exile ends where it was always meant to: beneath a prison colony, in a collapsing chamber, staring up at something that should not exist.
A skull made of crystal. A violet pulse. A voice like a blade, sharp and amused.
It calls itself the part of humanity that refused to die quietly, and it offers him a bargain. In exchange for what he can do with fire, it will teach him how to survive a world built on Breath, a force that moves through people and stone like current through wire. It powers wards, engines, and cities, and it tempts everyone to draw a little more, to test what happens when limits bend.
But Khalen’s world isn’t merely broken. It’s curated. Ancient anchor paths scar the land where a civilization once stood, and the ruins are missing, not ruined, as if someone lifted them out of history. Delvers call it discovery. Archivists call it proof. The Core calls it bait.
Because the artifacts are real, and some were designed to make you more than human.
He’s not hunting relics for glory, he’s hunting them because he’s learned that being human is not enough to keep anyone alive.
Khalen can run, bleed, and try to stay human. Or he can reach for the relics, and become the kind of answer the Core understands.
**
Style note: This story leans cinematic: close scenes, strong sensory detail, and worldbuilding revealed through motion and consequence rather than long exposition. Dialogue stays tight, especially in tense moments. If you like mysteries that tighten over chapters, watch the small physical details and offhand lines, they tend to pay off.
This story was ten years in the making. I’ll try to make every moment earn its place.
History, Religion, Archeology in a fun epic.
