Gramis Argento has spent five centuries training to protect his people. On the day he earns the highest honor his clan can bestow, the sky tears open and beings of impossible power step through.
The Attani don't negotiate. They demonstrate. A single orb of energy carves a crater into the plaza stone, and the elders kneel before the smoke clears. When the Attani call for warriors to serve in their king's Elite Guard, Gramis volunteers. Not out of loyalty. To learn their weaknesses from the inside.
His student Elmner follows him through the portal. So do ten others.
What awaits is an empire built on conquest and divine certainty. Slaves from a hundred conquered species fill the citadel halls. The king's word is law, his power absolute, and obedience the price of survival. Gramis kills to earn his rank. He stands watch during atrocities. He counts his justifications the way other men count scars.
And Elmner doesn't see tyranny. He sees divine order worth serving.
His mother's last words follow him like a blade at his back: "A blade that bends to tyranny is already broken."
The question isn't whether Gramis will break. It's whether enough of him will remain to matter when the time comes.
The opening novella of the War for the Entar, a saga spanning thirty alien species and nine magic systems, built over thirty years by one creator.
