A Tale of Scorched Ash and Elm

<p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>The gods have abandoned the world. Their relics have not.</strong><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)> Over a century ago the Wexians came to Alfheim with chains steel and a dragon wreathed in fire. The elven regent queen Anya walked into the flames with Sumarbrander the sword of Freyr and vanished. Alfheim fell. Its magic broke. Stories say the sword was lost.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Now that same shadow has crossed the sea. When war-chief Gunvald returns from raiding to find his home in Hammerfel reduced to ash and his wife butchered vengeance is the only thing left to him. But the ruin at the heart of his village is no ordinary raid: stone has melted the dead are marked by impossible fire and survivors whisper of a chained dragon in Wexian colors.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Far from the fjords Balt a hunted half-elf born of Wexian conquest has spent a decade striking at the empire that made him. Rumors of Sumarbrander draw him north toward a weapon that could finally turn slaughter back on its makers.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Between them stands Glyrna a young Völva who has lost her home her faith and her priestess-mothers in one night. </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>The Wexians want to use her seidr to find the sword. Balti wants her help to keep it from them. Gunvald needs any hope he can get.</strong></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Above them all Aric of Wexia dragon-rider and heir to generations of blood is determined to succeed where his forefathers failed: break the last wild magics of the north and claim a god's power as his own.</span></p><p></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>As raiders witches half-bloods and warlords collide one truth burns through the smoke: The gods may be gone. Their war isn't.</strong></p>