If I could…
Chapter 1: The Ash of Yesterday The snow didn't fall over the village of Ember-Vale; it collapsed, heavy as a leaden shroud. In the suffocating silence of the tundra, the only sound was Elias’s ragged, whistling breath. He was only nineteen, but his eyes carried the hollow exhaustion of a man who had seen too many winters. In his frozen hands, he clutched a box made of ashwood, sealed with black wax that felt like it was pulsing—beating like a diseased heart. "You shouldn't have come back, Elias." The voice was gravelly, broken by decades of solitude. High Priest Marcus stood in the doorway of the Aethelgard Monastery, a flickering lantern in his hand. The dim light revealed the ancient runes carved into the stone walls—wards meant to keep out the things that prowled in the mist. "I had no choice," Elias replied, his voice cracking from the cold. "The village... it’s dying. The Glass Plague has reached my home. My little sister... her hands are turnin...