by Akavia FarazIn the world of Aetheryon, twelve great nations ruled with blood and iron. For millennia, they had carved the world into territories marked by conquest and cruelty, each claiming dominion under their own sun. They were united by a single unwritten law, ancient as the mountains and cruel as winter: the weak would be cast out, the strong would endure.It was a world where purity of bloodline meant everything, where children born of forbidden unions were marked for death before drawing their first breath. Where entire peoples could be erased from history with nothing more than a decree and a sword. Where the twelve guardians, mythical beasts of unimaginable power, were bound in chains of servitude to the nations they were forced to protect.Yet from ruin and the ashes of war, from the spaces between the cracks of this perfect order, a child was born. Nameless, orphaned, exiled, acknowledged by no land. Wrapped in cloth marked with twelve crossed suns, the symbol of the co

Arc I: The Nameless ChildRavindra woke before sunrise, as always, as Auratigris had taught him.Cold bit at his exposed face, the only part of his body not protected by the thick polar bear fur he wore. His breath emerged in small white clouds, dancing in the air before vanishing. Five years living in Frostreach had taught him that sleeping too long meant death, a small body could not store heat like the giant guardian who lay in the corner of the cave, wings folded, breath slow as distant waves.He sat up slowly, small hand touching the stone beneath him. Still warm. Auratigris always ensured that, her massive body lying on the same stone each night, heating it with Aether flowing through flesh and bone, creating a bed that would not kill a human child in his sleep."You're awake." Auratigris's voice rumbled low, gold eye opening though the blue remained closed. "Good. Today you hunt alone."Ravindra didn't answer. Unlike other human children who might complain or be afraid, though

Arc I: The Nameless ChildFear has a taste.Ravindra tasted it now, metal on his tongue, acid in his throat, cold spreading from stomach to fingertips though his body was sweating. He stood in the middle of a flat snowfield, wind slapping his face cruelly, and ten paces ahead, Auratigris sat in a ready-to-strike position.No longer the gentle guardian teaching with patience.Before him was pure predator, blue and gold eyes blazing with intensity that made every survival instinct scream to run."You're afraid." Not a question. Auratigris stated fact like stating the sky was blue or snow was white. "Good. Fear keeps you alive. The question is: what do you do with it?"Ravindra didn't answer. He couldn't, jaw too tight, teeth grinding. His left hand, still bearing the Aether mark, gripped the training staff Auratigris had carved from mammoth bone found in deep caves. His first weapon. Longer than his own body, heavy, blunt-tipped but hard enough to break bone."Run," Auratigris whispered

Ravindra Ravindra's thirteenth winter arrived with a storm more vicious than usual.Wind howled like wounded beasts, carrying snow that didn't fall straight but sideways, stabbing every gap in the bear fur clothing he wore. Frostreach's sky had been dark gray since morning, the kind of gray that said this storm wouldn't pass in a day or two. Maybe a week. Maybe more. Air so cold his breath froze before becoming mist, instantly transforming into tiny ice crystals that fell back to earth like diamond dust.Ravindra stood at the cave mouth, staring at the white world spinning in beautiful, deadly chaos. He was taller now, though still small for a ten-year-old child. His muscles were dense as coiled rope, every movement containing efficiency learned from thousands of hours training. Small scars covered his hands, some from falling on ice, some from Auratigris's claws during sparring that got too close. His face no longer held childhood softness. Cheekbones prominent, jaw firm, steel-gray

Ravindra Auratigris stared at him with eyes that left no room for negotiation, blue and gold eyes that had witnessed thousands of storms and thousands of deaths and knew the difference between a test that built and a test that destroyed, and in that gaze Ravindra could read clearly that this was the former though it would feel like the latter before it was finished."Seven days," the guardian said with voice deep as the rumble of shifting underground ice, not loud but carrying weight that couldn't be ignored, and those words fell in the cave air like a judgment long considered and now finally pronounced. "Seven days on the highest peak you can reach without falling into the chasm, without this cave's protection, without fire except what you can make yourself, and most importantly, without me to save you if you make foolish mistakes which you certainly will because you're still a child though you pretend to be grown."Ravindra didn't answer immediately because he knew Auratigris wasn'