Aethelgard: The Lumina Bearer: 1

The Aether is calling. Will she answer, or will the world burn? Seventeen-year-old Elara is a scavenger in Oakhaven, a town clinging to the edge of a dying world. Life is simple: avoid the Enforcers, find enough scrap to survive, and keep her younger brother, Finn, out of trouble. But everything changes when she unearths a Lumina Shard-a fragment of a forgotten civilization that pulses with a terrifying, ancient energy. Suddenly, Elara is no longer just a scavenger. She is the Lumina Bearer, marked by glowing glyphs and hunted by Professor Thorne, a man obsessed with reclaiming the power that once shattered the world. Joined by her pragmatic best friend Kaelen and a mysterious Guardian named Lyra, Elara must navigate the shifting mists of the Great Scar and the ruins of the Sunken City. As betrayals unfold and secrets are revealed, Elara learns that the "peace" maintained by the Enforcers is built on a lie-and that she is the only one who can stop the impending cataclysm.

Pages: 97, Paperback, Independently published