The Gilded Shroud

By Sterling Beaudin

The city's light is not free.

High above the frozen dark, Aethelgard glows beneath the Shroud, a radiant barrier said to be divine. Beneath its warmth, the city thrives. Beneath its surface, others pay the price.

Lysithea works where the Shroud breaks. As a Captain of the Wall, she absorbs the heat, pressure, and damage that keep the city alive, binding her body to a system that treats sacrifice as maintenance.

When unrest spreads through the lower districts and the Shroud begins to falter, Lysithea is pulled into the heart of the city's power. What she finds there threatens not just the future of Aethelgard, but the meaning of survival itself.

This is not a story about saving the light.

It is a story about what the light demands.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GJLJFH1D
• ISBN13: 9798245324777
• Release Date: February 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 404 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"