“Find it,” her mentor had said before vanishing in a storm of ash and fire. “Or it will vanish with its secrets.” Guided by the letter, Lira followed a trail of cryptic markers—a carved owl on a forgotten bridge, a songbird’s cry echoing through a dead city. Each clue led her deeper into the Veil of Aethyra , a forest where trees drip with liquid light and time bends like a willow. There, she met Kael, a brooding warrior with eyes like smoldering coals, and Niv, a thief whose hands could steal shadows.