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Chapters (53)
  1. Map of Kingdom of Finfalla and Surrounding Area- Western Half
  2. Map of Kingdom of Finfalla and Surrounding Area - Eastern Half
  3. Map of Kingdom of Finfalla and Surrounding Area - Full Map
  4. Important Trigger Warning
  5. Prologue
  6. PART I
  7. One
  8. Two
  9. Three
  10. Four
  11. Five
  12. Six
  13. Seven
  14. Eight
  15. Nine
  16. Ten
  17. Eleven
  18. Twelve
  19. Interlude: The River of Life
  20. PART II
  21. Thirteen
  22. Fourteen
  23. Fifteen
  24. Sixteen
  25. Seventeen
  26. Eighteen
  27. Nineteen
  28. Interlude: Fallow Fields
  29. PART III
  30. Twenty
  31. Twenty-One
  32. Twenty-Two
  33. Twenty-Three
  34. Twenty-Four
  35. Twenty-Five
  36. Interlude: Of Man and Monster
  37. PART IV
  38. Twenty-Six
  39. Twenty-Seven
  40. Twenty-Eight
  41. Twenty-Nine
  42. Thirty
  43. Thirty-One
  44. Thirty-Two
  45. Thirty-Three
  46. Thirty-Four
  47. POSTLUDES
  48. Postlude 1: Lana Vica
  49. Postlude 2: Ludo Vica
  50. Postlude 3: Cainan
  51. Acknowledgments
  52. An excerpt from Heartsworn, Volume II in The Forsworn Oath, available for preorder now!
  53. PART I

Three hours later, he closed the book, unfinished, a million jagged, confused thoughts whirling through his mind. He didn’t know what to think, but he’d read enough to wonder whether he’d been too quick to judge whatever it was that was happening.

He hated leaving Bryony alone, but she was a good sleeper, rarely awakening from nightmares to disturb their own sleep. And he needed to find Cora. He needed to understand.

With that in mind, he closed the window and slipped outside into the brightest night the world had ever seen.

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Later still

Cainan ran, drawn by the unusually potent smell of smoke in the air, the hint of flames above the rooftops, though they were the wrong color for fire, and the screams of villagers.

After a long sprint, he reached the house that was causing the disturbance. It was on the other side of the village, a good mile or so away from their own home. Some villagers were fleeing, and he was forced to shove his way through to join the dozen or so stalwart souls who had created a water line, passing buckets from hand to hand and then tossing them onto a fierce blaze not of oranges and reds and yellows, but wielding flames of black and gray and white. Every bucket that was thrown on the fire seemed only to intensify its hunger for destruction.

A particularly powerful burst of flames shot forth from the structure’s window, glass shrapnel exploding outwards in a sharp spray. One of the bucket wielders caught fire, screaming, stumbling aimlessly away. Cainan ran to the man, tackling him to the ground, feeling the heat on his own hands as he forced him into a roll with the hopes of snuffing out the flames. But then there was nothing to grab onto, his own skin limned with ash—the only thing that was left of what had been, just a moment ago, a human life.

He stared at his ashy hands, in shock, eyes unfocused as he gazed about himself. Those trying to help put out the fire had given up, fleeing with the rest of the villagers even as a gust of wind suddenly tore through the streets. The flames that had previously been isolated to just the one structure were thrown across the gap to the next house, immediately igniting the wooden frame and roofing materials, spreading faster than a blink of an eye.

They didn’t stop there, leaping from house to house, screams following their path as windows and doors spilled open, filled with frightened people who’d found their normal lives thrust into a world of madness and chaos.