Paradise was never meant to last.
After surviving the horrors of the Hollow Kingdoms, Torren, Elowen, Serra, and Caelum awaken in Aethelgard-a breathtaking world of living architecture, radiant magic, and fragile peace. Worshiped as saviors and crowned as Sovereigns, they are offered everything they fought for.
But something is wrong.
The world feels... edited.
Memories fracture. Reality glitches. Entire pieces of their past have been erased, leaving behind a void none of them can fully comprehend-except in fleeting, painful glimpses. When Serra nearly unravels after speaking a forbidden name, and Elowen discovers a hidden wound in reality itself, the truth begins to surface:
Someone has been removed from existence.
And the cost of that erasure is everything.
As cracks in the world widen into catastrophic distortions-villages collapsing into nothingness, time looping endlessly, and creatures of pure void devouring reality-the group uncovers a terrifying truth. The paradise they've been given is not a reward.
It is a construct.
A system held together by a single, unseen sacrifice.
A man named Riven.
Trapped at the core of creation, his suffering fuels the very fabric of this world. Every beautiful moment, every breath of life, is paid for by his slow erasure. And worse-every attempt to remember him threatens to tear reality apart.
Now hunted by the Keepers who enforce this fragile "perfection," and faced with impossible choices that blur the line between salvation and destruction, the Sovereigns must decide:
Preserve the illusion...
or break the world to bring back the truth.
Because in a world where stories are written into existence-
remembering is rebellion.
And some characters were never meant to return.