End of the Beginning: Uncovering the Truth

At the Aethelgard Academy, students are taught to fight the Catastrophic Waves—brutal, annual onslaughts of monsters that threaten the realm. The cause is a mystery; the solution is force. Idris Vane has never fit in. His relentless curiosity is a nuisance in a system that values obedience. But when a forbidden experiment unlocks a terrifying sight—the ability to see the true "Flow" of all magic—he uncovers a devastating truth. The monsters aren't invaders. The Waves aren't a natural disaster. They are symptoms of a festering wound in reality itself, a silent scream echoing from a broken dimension. Now, burdened with a perception that can literally blind him, Idris must convince a band of other misfits to trust his fractured vision. Together, they must unravel a conspiracy older than the academy itself, before the guardians of their world, in their fear, choose to burn the patient to cure the disease.