The Abyss-Touched Mage

For centuries, the Arcanum has dictated who wields magic and who is cast aside. Magic is studied, structured, controlled—a gift of order and refinement. But when Raine Valis, an unknown boy with no noble lineage, steps forward for the Resonance Test, the world shifts.



Magic does not embrace him. It recoils.



The stone meant to reveal his gift shatters beneath his touch. The officials stare in silent horror. This isn’t power. This is something else. Something that should not exist.



Before he can comprehend what’s happening, the Arcanum brands him an anomaly—a threat. They do not imprison him. They do not execute him. Instead, they do something far worse.



They let him go.



Now hunted by unseen forces, whispered about in corridors he will never walk again, Raine is left with one undeniable truth—he is not the first. There have been others. And every trace of them has been erased.



Forced into exile, pursued by bounty hunters and scholars alike, Raine must unravel the truth of his power before the Arcanum does it for him. Because whatever he touched in that chamber did more than reject him.



It saw him.



And it is waiting.