It was supposed to be a fresh start. A calculated risk. A controlled journey into the unknown. Julia Meier has spent her life preparing for this—crossing worlds to Aleria, the land her father disappeared into twelve years ago. She has the knowledge, the names, the history. She has a plan. What she doesn’t have is control. The moment she and her friends arrive, the cracks begin to show. Annemarie Bennett, quiet and steady, is the first to falter—seized by visions and an unseen force that pulls her westward, deeper into a land unraveling under the weight of something old and hungry. They find themselves stranded in a world that does not welcome them, pursued by shadows they cannot name, and bound to a fate none of them understand. Desperate for answers, the four navigate a land teetering on the edge of war, pursued by enemies both seen and unseen. A queen in exile gathers her strength, an empire watches from the shadows, and a cursed forest grows ever more dangerous. The deeper they go, the more the lines blur—between past and present, myth and memory, freedom and fate. Because Aleria is not just a world waiting to be explored. It is a story still being written. And they are already part of it.