The Ascended (The Aesymarean Duet #1)

Prologue

In the beginning, there were only the Primordials. Beings whose thoughts shaped reality itself, who breathed life into nothingness and painted existence across the Abyss.

From their dreams came oceans and forests, mountains and stars. From their whispers came mortals. From their pride came the Aesymar, divine children who carried fragments of their makers’ power.

But power breeds ambition.

Among the Aesymar, twelve rose above the rest. Their desires reached further, their hungers grew deeper, and they gazed upon Elaren, the mortal realm, not as shepherds but as rulers waiting for their crowns.

What followed is spoken of only in fragments. A rebellion whispered in half-remembered hymns, a war too vast for mortal minds to understand. Some claim the creators simply withered, exhausted by the act of shaping reality. Still others say they sleep, sealed beyond reach, waiting to return.

Whatever the truth, the Primordials were long gone.

In their absence, Olinthar, mightiest of the Twelve, claimed the highest throne as King of Gods. Under his dominion, a new order was born, with the Twelve at the apex, the remaining Aesymar beneath them, and in time, the divine-born children of their unions.

Yet creation had been scarred. Divine power bled into the mortal world like a wound, seeping into flesh and bone. Some mortals changed, touched by sparks too great for ordinary lives. They became dangerous, unpredictable, and precious.

Thus came the Trials of Ascension, a crucible where the power-touched could prove themselves worthy. Those who endured joined the pantheon’s lowest tier, honored as Legends. Those who failed were cast aside, their names left to dust.

And so, for millennia, the order has stood.