In a world where every child receives a magical “Gift” at fifteen, Caspin hoped for greatness. Instead, he was cursed with Gorge—an insatiable hunger that slowly consumed his body, his dreams, and his place in the world. Once a promising student at the academy, Caspin became a pariah: abandoned by friends, shunned by society, and crushed under the weight of his own flesh and regret.
Now nearing forty and penniless, he drifts to the edge of a crumbling town near the Death Cross, a shifting frontier where monsters breach reality. Hoping desperation would outweigh prejudice, he seeks work among those too fearful to care who they hire. But even here, he fails. Fired. Forgotten. Fading.
When the Death Cross breaches, Caspin joins the town’s final stand, not out of courage—but because there’s nothing left to lose. Blades clash, monsters descend, and Caspin finds himself face-to-face with death. But in his last breath, as his long-forgotten family pendant shatters, time halts—and regret floods in.
Visions of what might have been blind him: the family he left behind, the friend he begged not to forget him, the life he abandoned.
And then, a voice:
“We meet again, child.”
Caspin is about to discover that death was never the end—it was the turning point.