Aether Earth 1953; Burn and Rage

New Orleans survived. The dead were driven back into the ground. The prison beneath the Gulf was struck. The Adventurers Guild now stands as the line between order and collapse. But victory was only local. From Europe's shattered fields to forgotten battlegrounds in Asia, graves are opening. Battlefields are stirring. The dead are rising in numbers that no barricade can answer — and they are not rising alone. Representatives of a Galactic Council have arrived on Earth. They came quietly. They came watching. John Seraphin, the Warden of Earth, has taken the path of the sovereign. The System recognizes him. Governments do not. Politicians move to control him, discredit him, or make him the face of a disaster they cannot explain. They think this is a crisis of policy. John knows it is a crisis of containment. The undead are not the disease. They are a symptom. As global instability spreads and the truth becomes clear — that Authority must be earned, not claimed — John must reach the Council before the governments do. Because the Galactic Council doesn't show up for crises. They show up for endings. And something far worse is pushing from below.