Long before kingdoms, crowns, or war, this realm belonged to the gods. They shaped the mountains with their hands, filled the rivers with life, and breathed magic into the realm before creating two races to inherit it: humans and the Velkyn. For a time, they lived side by side, learning from one another beneath immortal eyes. But fear is a disease that spreads faster than any plague. Humans began to see the Velkyn's magic as a threat, mistaking gifts for curses, and peace gave way to bloodshed. Forced from their homes, the Velkyn vanished into the endless heart of the Silent Silver Wood, where even the bravest soldiers refused to follow. Satisfied that their creations could forge their own destinies, the gods withdrew to their heavenly realm, falling into an ageless slumber while the world below unraveled. In time, humanity raised towering walls of stone and founded the Kingdom of Astrial, where stories of the Velkyn slowly transformed into warnings, then myths, then monsters.

Prince Lucifer Morningstar had never questioned those stories. The eighteen-year-old heir to Astrial was as quiet as the castle halls he wandered, speaking only when necessity demanded it. His silence made him beloved by nobles and commoners alike, mistaken for wisdom when it was simply who he was. Sheltered within the kingdom walls since birth, Lucifer found freedom only between the pages of ancient books. Day after day he disappeared into the royal library, studying forgotten gods, lost civilizations, magical relics, and myths older than the kingdom itself. His parents, King James and Queen Aleria, had always dismissed the Velkyn as nothing more than demons the gods destroyed centuries ago—a cautionary tale, nothing more. And Lucifer, having never stepped beyond Astrial's gates, had no reason to believe otherwise.

Beyond those same walls, hidden beneath silver leaves and enchanted skies, another kingdom still breathed. Velkia pulsed with magic as naturally as a beating heart, its rhythm flowing through every tree, every stream, and every Velkyn born beneath its canopy. It was a song only their kind could hear. Amelia, The princess of Valkia, one of the last surviving Wesii, had grown up listening to that heartbeat her entire life. Her doe ears twitched with every whisper of the forest, her antlers reaching toward the heavens as though remembering the gods who had made them. Her parents taught her that humans were cruel creatures driven by fear, responsible for centuries of slaughter and suffering. Never trust them. Never let them see you. And if they ever cross into the forest... survive.

Tonight, autumn wrapped the realm in amber and crimson, the Silent Silver Wood glowing like distant embers beneath a sky scattered with stars. Above them, the sleeping constellations of the gods shimmered across the heavens, Athena's burning brighter than the rest during her season. Deep within Astrial Castle, surrounded by towering shelves and flickering candlelight, Lucifer sat alone in the royal library with another weathered book spread across his desk, completely unaware that the myths he'd devoted his life to studying were breathing beneath the very same stars.