In a land fractured by elemental extremes and ancient grudges, five kingdoms stand divided — each shaped by its climate, customs, and uneasy relationship with the monstrous frontier known only as the Wasteland.

For generations, the kingdoms of Solkar, Thal, Nordr, Virellia, and Alzhan have fought among themselves — over borders, trade, and pride — while the Wasteland's creeping horrors press ever closer. From this cursed land come the Oldspawn — beasts of myth and nightmare, whose hearts, when consumed, fuse with one’s own, birthing magic at a terrible cost. Power, after all, is never without sacrifice.

Evelyn — an orphan from a border outpost — is quiet, clever, and far more dangerous than she knows. When she survives a raid on her village and consumes a fractured core-heart, she becomes something new: a bearer of wild magic not bound to any kingdom's laws or customs. Her abilities are raw and unstable, and she draws the attention of those who would shape her into a weapon.
At her side is Torren, her childhood friend — steadfast, brave, and unknowingly the source of her first love. But while Evelyn’s path leads her deeper into the politics and power of the Five Realms, Torren’s takes him elsewhere: to duty, to transformation, and ultimately, to love beyond their bond.

Guiding Evelyn is the enigmatic scholar Vareth, a rogue archivist exiled from Alzhan’s great think-towers. Vareth believes Evelyn’s magic may be the key to ending the Wasteland’s expansion — or the cause of its rebirth. He teaches her the truth of the Oldspawn, of core-magic, and the First Fire, a forgotten power lost to time.

But in the depths of the Wasteland stirs something older than monsters. Once a god-emperor of a fallen sixth kingdom, now corrupted by centuries of core-consumption, the being known as The Hollow King has begun to move again. His twisted children — the Echoed, part-human, part-beast — are spreading across the borderlands.

And he wants Evelyn.

To survive, the kingdoms must unite. But can old enemies find common ground — when power is bonded in blood, bone, and the heartfire of beasts?

Torren knelt beside the armored form, teeth clenched, trying to still the bleeding with a scrap of linen. But even Evelyn, from several paces away, knew it was futile. The wounds weren't clean cuts — they were eaten, as if something had unstitched the man from the inside.


The Warden's eyes fluttered open, barely. His gaze drifted to Evelyn.


"You… saw it," he rasped. His voice was smoke and gravel. "You feel the singing, don't you?"


Evelyn couldn't move. Couldn't speak. That glow still hummed in her limbs — the same wrong-light as before.


Torren tried to hold the man down. "Don't speak. Save your strength."


"No time," the Warden hissed. "They're learning… how to breach… the old laws…"


His body arched, once. Then fell still.


From the wreckage of his shattered breastplate, something glinted: a fragment of crystalized bone — the core.


It pulsed faintly, but it was splintered, its threads fraying like burning wire. Core-energy bled into the air in faint flickers, like breath from a dying fire.


Evelyn's chest tightened. It called to her.


"I'm not doing anything," she whispered.


The core fragment vibrated faster the closer she came. Its light turned gold at the edges. Her fingertips tingled.


Her mother's words echoed in her skull:


"Never, ever touch what hums back at you."


But it was screaming now. Not in pain — in recognition.


Evelyn fell to her knees. Her hand reached out.


The world became thousands of shattering images: a battlefield of stars, a sea made of mirrors, faces screaming with joy and terror, old songs that cracked the sky. A silver-eyed woman laughed as Evelyn's bones caught flame.


A heartbeat pounded behind her own. Louder. Deeper.


Torren was shouting something, shaking her.


But Evelyn was gone, spiraling into the fevered dark — with fire behind her eyes and a song bleeding through her teeth.


Chapter 21 - Corebound