Etchings of Power (Aegis of the Gods)

Death feeds life in the world of Denestia. The shade advances, bathing the land in blood as they massacre all before them. Magics and creatures long thought dead rise again. To the east, in Ostania, an ancient clan re-emerges to begin their conquest anew, leaving carnage in their wake. To the west, the ruling Granadian Tribunal tries to maintain its stranglehold on its empire while expanding into Ostanian lands under the premise of converting the ‘uncivilized’ to the path of enlightenment. Hope rests on the swords, intelligence, and power of four: Ryne, a living legend at the edge of madness, once in the Tribunal's employ, is haunted by a murderous past and the voices of his own power that whisper for him to kill. Voices he struggles against even as the shade's and the Tribunal's assassins close in on him in the village he's sworn to protect. Ancel, a gifted student at the cusp of his power's manifestation, has lost his way due to a love spurned, a love he pines after. Stalked by the shade and forced to flee in the company of his friends and Kachien, a strange seductive killer who he's fallen for, Ancel must accept who he is or perish. Irmina, a Tribunal assassin, and Ancel's former lover, is mired in her quest for revenge on Ancel's parents who she believes destroyed her family. Sent to recruit Ryne, she must put her emotions aside or risk not only failing the final test her master set her, but death at Ryne's hands. And Galiana Calestis, a Tribunal Matus, burdened by past failure, manipulates Ancel's father and whoever else she needs to, all in the name of seeing her people survive and bringing about the prophesies within the great Chronicles. Between warring nations, vengeful leaders, magic and steel, myth and men, the fate of the world hangs in the balance. Who can unite the kingdoms against the encroaching darkness? Who shall bring the power that drives the world to heel? Who will walk the knife’s edge of harmony? If none can, then Denestia is doomed.