Arthur was fifty, tired, and forgotten. He died in a sterile hospital room, a man who had played it safe and lost everything. But death wasn't the end. He wakes up in the body of an eight-year-old boy named Kaelen, in a world where the dirt is stained with blood and the "Middle Ages" are just beginning to crawl out of the dark.
Sold to the Order of the Obsidian Veil, Kaelen is forged into a weapon. But unlike the other orphans, Kaelen has the mind of a man who knows the value of a second chance. As the world transitions from tribal warring to civilized empires, Kaelen moves through the shadows, caught between a forbidden love with a deadly rival and a conspiracy that threatens to undo the very civilization they are building.

      Lord Alaric's manor was a fortress of glass and iron perched on a hill overlooking the city. From the gutters, Kaelen and Lyra watched the perimeter.


"The guards rotate every twenty minutes," Kaelen noted. "But look at the steam vents. They're using the heat to create a thermal barrier. If we touch those pipes, we'll trigger an alarm."


Lyra looked at him, impressed. "How do you know about thermal barriers?"


Kaelen caught himself. He couldn't exactly explain infrared signatures or thermodynamics. "I... I just feel the heat in the Aetheria," he lied. "We need to go through the cooling tanks. Water masks our heat."


In the dark, Lyra reached out and touched his arm. "Sometimes I think you're from another world, Kaelen. Not just another village. Another world entirely."


He didn't answer. He just tightened his mask and slipped into the icy water of the canal.


Chapter 13 - Chapter 13: The Target: Lord Alaric