"The Ether does not vanish—it remembers. And in remembering, it reshapes what remains."

  —Elarya, Keeper of the Last Light

  ?

  Once, the skies had been painted with twin moons, and the rivers sang with the heartbeat of Ether itself.

  The Etherwell pulsed pure and bright, and the Shards of the Eternal Crystal—the source of all true magic—kept balance between worlds.

  The beasts of light roamed freely, guardians of harmony. With wings of silver flame and voices like wind-chimes in moonlight, they walked beside those who wielded magic in peace.

  The realms were not perfect, but they were whole.

  There was order then—a dance of opposites: light and shadow, gifted and earned. Magic was a living promise—given by will, not torn from the world by force.

  But now—

  The sky cracked like shattered glass.

  A storm of burning Ether split the heavens, raining down in jagged shards, each pulsing with a hunger older than time.

  Magic turned volatile. The Veins of Etherflow ruptured. The balance fractured. The harmony between realms died screaming.

  And from the deepest wound, the Scar was born.

  Beneath that dying sky, the last of the Aelthari stood at the edge of the world—where reality itself had begun to unravel. Their robes, once woven with the sigils of a lost empire, clung like funeral cloths, stained with the blood of those who had dared to resist.

  At the heart of the devastation, a lone figure knelt before a fractured obsidian monolith—a Shard of Primordial Power. It pulsed with unstable Etherflow, a dying heartbeat that echoed through space and soul.

  She pressed a trembling hand to its surface, the other drifting—unbidden—to her lower abdomen. Not a spell. Not a shield. Just a gesture of instinct. Of protection. As if some part of her already knew... what she would leave behind.

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  Her name passed between the Aelthari like a prayer—and a warning.

  Elarya Valcarys. Keeper of the Last Light. Queen of Etherfall. Last Sovereign of the Crystal Crown.

  She had come to seal the wound in the world. To stop the Scar from devouring everything.

  And she was already too late.

  The monolith pulsed again. The air warped. The fabric of reality bent. She felt it then—not just magic, not even Etherflow.

  The Scar was alive.

  Not a rift. Not a wound. But a presence. Vast. Cold. Eternal.

  But even in that vastness—

  It grieved.

  It reached.

  Not for destruction.

  For memory.

  "Elarya!" a voice cried behind her.

  A warrior staggered into view, his armour etched with runes of the Forgotten Lineages, chest torn open and leaking Etherlight. His eyes were wide with a terror reserved only for those who'd seen beyond the veil.

  "The Scar is waking! If we don't seal it now—"

  She turned.

  And in that instant, she saw the future.

  Not through prophecy. Not through spellcraft. But in the brutal, merciless way truth reveals itself just before the world ends.

  She saw the Scar spread like wildfire.

  Cities collapsing. Names erased. Histories burned to ash. The beasts of light twisted into monstrous echoes, corrupted by hunger and lies.

  And beyond it all—

  A child.

  Not yet born. Eyes of starlight. Blood like Ether. A soul scar-forged in silence.

  The Heir.

  A final shard shattered.

  A beam of Etherlight struck the earth—and dozens more followed, screaming from the sky. Where they landed, children were marked. Not by chance. By fate.

  Those born beneath those strikes—those who survived—would never be the same.

  Scarborn.

  Magic not gifted, but fractured. Magic forged in chaos. Forbidden. Feared. And hunted—because to kill one is to absorb the shard they carry. Power passed through blood. Not legacy.

  The truth would be buried. The lies would reign.

  The monolith detonated.

  Etherflow exploded from its core, ripping through the battlefield like fire through paper. Elarya screamed as it seared through her body, rewriting her bones, burning her humanity. She became more than mortal.

  Then—less.

  Around her, the last of the Aelthari fell like broken stars, their souls devoured by the Scar's endless hunger. Etherfall was lost. The world shattered.

  And from its ruin, the old balance was forgotten.

  Where once there had been one world, there would now be two:

  Those born of the Scar—and those who hunted them.

  Elarya collapsed into the abyss.

  As the sky bled and silence swallowed the world, her final whisper crossed the veil and settled into time:

  "The Scar does not sleep.

  And when it wakes... it will call for its heir."

  Author's Note

  Thanks for reading!

  This is my first book, and I'd love to hear your honest (but kind) thoughts.

  Every comment and bit of support means the world!