The floorboards of the childhood cottage were incredibly cold, but Elara no longer minded. In fact, she welcomed it. The biting chill seeping through the wood was the only physical sensation left to her, a stark contrast to the absolute, terrifying numbness spreading outward from her chest.

She la

The High Council chambers were a cavern of polished obsidian and gold, designed to intimidate the guilty and elevate the righteous. Today, the massive room felt like a tomb.

Mage Lord Kaelen Thorne stood at the center of the circular dias, his posture rigid, his face an ashen mask of pure shock. H

The air in the Vance estate felt poisoned.

Leo sat at the heavy oak desk in his training room, the shadows of the late afternoon stretching across the floorboards. The house was utterly silent, save for the distant, rhythmic ticking of the grandfather clock in the hallway. It was the same clock El