Power is not given. It is recognized.Aster Doncrist is a mixed-blood Sylvan and the youngest graduate of the Academy of Arms: gifted, driven, and certain of his place in the High Kingdom.He is also untested.When a single decision in a Highcastle tavern leaves a nobleman dead, Aster finds himself at the center of a legal and political crisis that will not be resolved by skill at arms alone. His actions must survive investigation, judgment, and the scrutiny of a kingdom in which his blood, his family, and the growing influence of the Sylvans are already matters of contention.Then Alexian Fleetwood takes an interest in him.The legendary warrior and Prince of the Sylvan realm, Alexian Fleetwood sees potential in Aster that raw talent cannot fulfill. Under his relentless instruction, Aster must leave behind the certainties of being a noble young Knight-Lieutenant and learn an entirely different kind of discipline: fieldcraft, restraint, perception, responsibility, and the judgment to know when power should-and should not-be used.What begins as the testing of one young knight gradually draws Aster into a much larger world of ancient alliances, royal families, military traditions, magic, and political tensions between Human and Sylvan societies. As his abilities grow, so does the weight of what others may one day expect of him.But beyond the courts of Highcastle and the forests of the Sylvan realm, deeper forces are already in motion. Old resentments have not disappeared, powerful families have long memories, and there are those who see the growing bonds between Human and Sylvan as a threat to the order they intend to preserve.Aster may be learning what it takes to become a warrior.He is about to discover what it costs to become something more.In a realm where power is bound by discipline, a single misstep can unravel more than a life: it can fracture a Kingdom.
