Tale of Embers and Tides

The gods are gone. Only their fractured legacy remains. Magic still exists, but it is unstable, deadly, and tightly controlled by the Crown. Those who wield it are either trained, bound, or broken. The world is divided between the Crown, the Exiled, and the Hollowed—each fighting over the truth of magic and its future. Selene and her twin brother Aten are born with dangerous power that should not exist unchecked. Raised under suppression and cruelty, they survive only through cursed seals meant to contain them. But when Selene’s magic erupts and destroys their home, the twins are forced into a world that wants to use them as weapons. At the Academy, they are trained for war—and for the Dawn of Bindingstones, where humans can form sacred bonds with Mythicals, ancient creatures that grant immense power at a cost no one fully understands. But nothing in this world is as it seems. Not the Crown. Not the war. And not the truth behind magic itself. As rebellion brews and loyalties fracture, Selene must decide whether she will become the weapon she was raised to be—or the force that finally breaks the system.