Ash and Everwinter
When the first snowflake lands on Seren Ashveil's cheek at the fork of the Aldric Track and refuses to melt, the season itself has broken. Frost has come three weeks early, and across a kingdom of fallen leaves and failing oaks, the cold is settling in like a wound that will not close. Riding her horse Tethris into the Kaelen Pass, Seren is one of the few willing to name the unnatural winter for what it is: a curse, or the opening note of one. Behind her, King Aldric's throne is fracturing under the weight of old betrayals. Ahead, the Venn brothers, Caldor, the loyalist knight hiding a divided oath, and Sorin, the exile who would rather burn the kingdom than inherit it, wait on opposite sides of a question neither can answer. Beside her travel Vex, a knife-eyed wanderer whose coat is lined with secrets; Thessaly, whose silences have begun to sound like prophecy; and Maren, whose quiet loyalty will be tested past any breaking. And at the edge of every map waits Ythara, a name whispered only by those who have already begun to freeze. As autumn dies by inches and the long dark settles toward ash and everwinter, Seren discovers that the cold is not merely falling, it is hunting. To save a kingdom already cooling toward silence, she must decide what she is willing to sacrifice: a throne, a brotherhood, or the last warmth she has carried all her life.