Child of Ashes - Book 1: The Academy

Child of Ashes Book One: Book 1: The Academy A Star Wars: The Old Republic Novel By Ashley Sheley pen name Xi Liang On the storm-wracked world of Dromund Kaas, ten-year-old Nyra Veyn lives a simple life helping her father repair industrial machinery and dreaming of a future she will never have. When Imperial officials discover her Force sensitivity, she is taken from her family and sent across the galaxy to Korriban, the ancient birthplace of the Sith. There, beneath crimson skies and surrounded by the tombs of long-dead Dark Lords, Nyra enters the Sith Academy, a place where failure means death and friendship can be more dangerous than any enemy. The Academy is not a school. It is a crucible. Every lesson is a test. Every rival is a threat. Every tomb hides secrets that should have remained buried. While acolytes compete for power, influence, and survival, Nyra quickly discovers that something far older than the Sith Empire itself stirs beneath Korriban's surface. Students vanish without explanation. Ancient symbols appear in forgotten ruins. Ghostly whispers echo through sealed corridors. And deep below the Academy, hidden from even the most powerful Sith Lords, lies a mystery that has waited thousands of years for someone to uncover it. As Nyra struggles to survive brutal training, deadly rivalries, and the merciless politics of Sith society, she forms unlikely bonds with fellow acolytes who will shape the rest of her life. Among them is Seris Korr, a brilliant Sith Pureblood whose ambition rivals Nyra's own. Together they navigate a world built on betrayal, power, and fear, never realizing that the choices they make as children will one day determine the fate of the Sith Empire itself. But Korriban remembers. The red world watches. And beneath the sands, an ancient throne waits in darkness. For centuries, countless Sith have sought power. For millennia, something else has been searching for an heir. As Nyra descends deeper into the mysteries of Korriban, she begins to uncover a forgotten history older than the Empire, older than the Academy, and perhaps older than the Sith themselves. What starts as a fight for survival slowly becomes a journey toward a destiny she never asked for and a power that may consume everything she loves. Child of Ashes is the first installment in an epic saga spanning five books and fifteen hundred chapters, chronicling the rise of a frightened young girl from Academy acolyte to one of the most feared Sith in galactic history. Filled with ancient mysteries, political intrigue, dangerous rivalries, forbidden tombs, devastating betrayals, and the relentless pursuit of power, this is the beginning of a story thousands of years in the making. Some inherit legends. Others become them.