introduction: War took Vael’s family. Betrayal took his honor. Once a knight of the kingdom, he is now an exile — scarred, abandoned, and walking a world slowly turning to ash. As kingdoms crumble and forgotten legends resurface, Vael travels through the ruins left behind by war. But some memories refuse to die. A village called Thornridge. A girl named Aerin. And a past that still burns beneath the ashes.