Mira Thornvale

Nora was the last survivor of the Grayfeather Tribe—a clan deemed heretical among werewolves for their "inability to transform." Since childhood, she had been scorned as the "crippled wolf." Six years ago, she watched as her people were slaughtered by the Starblade Legion, while she herself was mistaken for a human spy and imprisoned in Blackstone Keep.

There, she was forcibly injected with "ancestral serum" in an attempt to awaken her beastly nature—but it failed. On the brink of death from the toxins, she was unexpectedly released by a newly appointed commander.


Feathers of the Forgotten

The creature stepped forward—wings shimmering like glass blades, eyes void of color, voice eerily calm.


“I am Æther Prime. The perfected lineage.”


Nora raised her weapon, heart hammering.


“You’re not perfect. You’re a cage.”


The thing tilted its head. “I was made from you. Improved. Purified.”


Cyrus circled behind it, blade drawn. “Then why the lockdowns? Why the containment?”


“Because perfection,” Æther Prime said, “terrifies the flawed.”


Feathered steel met photon bone. Sparks ignited in the corridor as they crashed through a cryo rack, shards raining like ash.


Cyrus shouted, “Keep it busy—I’ll find the kill switch!”


“You think I didn’t try that?” Nora yelled, blocking another blow. “This thing fights like it remembers every scar I have!”


Æther Prime lashed out. “Because I *am* your memory. The one you buried.”


Chapter 17: Queen of Greywing