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Prologue

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The Shattered Hourglass

Time once flowed like a sacred river—undisturbed, divine, and eternal. The Monarch of Time reigned not with armies, but with the power to rewrite fate, fracture destiny, and freeze the very breath of war. But eternity, as it turned out, was not immune to envy.

They came from the corners of the shattered world: Monarchs of Flame, Frost, Bone, Storm, Flesh, Mind, and Decay. Each carved a kingdom out of ruin, each bearing power drawn from ancient ley lines and relics of forgotten gods. Together, they feared what one among them could do. The Monarch of Time, Queen Aetheria Vire, became the target of their united wrath.

They tore her from the timeline—body, throne, and all. Her kingdom collapsed into dust and whispers, her name struck from the tongues of men. But time does not yield so easily.

Years passed. Eras bled into one another. In the post-apocalyptic world left behind, cities are ruins, empires are scattered, and reality itself buckles under the weight of fractured timelines and corrupted memories. Magic is scarce, twisted by relics and war. What remains is survival—and silence.

Until he awakened.

A boy named Caelen—a wanderer with no past, no home, and eyes that sometimes weep silver when no one's watching—emerged from obscurity. He bore the mark once worn only by the Monarch of Time, though no one recognized it. Not yet.

Within him, a soul stirs—fragmented, ancient, and furious. Queen Aetheria, not quite dead, not quite whole, has latched to his spirit, hidden like a whisper between heartbeats. Her power, sealed but leaking. Her voice, faint but growing.

Caelen doesn't know what he is yet. But the other Monarchs do.

Now, as the world reels from a brewing storm, and ancient prophecies awaken from slumber, Caelen must walk a path of fractured identities, whispered legacies, and gods in ruin.

The war they thought they ended is only beginning

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