Vigil of the Ageless - 1 - Arastathene I of II

“Absent dark, the stars need not the light.
Absent light, the fear and dark need not the night.”

The Humans are dead.

Vanished from the worlds of all three stars.

The memory of ancient Mankind has been but erased. Devoid of the greatest of minds and magicians, the marvels of Nivonia are but replaced. In the wake of soulless electric currents, in an onslaught of smoke and machine, magic is dying.

They were the favorite children of my dear Ash’Rel. Now, to the common folk, the ones called Nivalen, they are but a myth; fertile fodder for storytellers, and we along with them.

After six millennia of peace, we are nearly forgotten... along with the meaning of the word...

‘God.’

Now, like fire within the deep of silence, the fall of night has begun. Without the light of Humanity, the darkness around the star of Alanthir grows stronger. War is coming to a warless world. Fate is resolved. Death spreads its wings.

It will spare no man. No woman. No child.

“Without us,” Ash’Rel has spoken, “Naught can last,” and Godless, the children left alive “will only war and only die,” and in their death, he says, the truth will prevail. “Our truth.”

He is wrong.

I will not watch the spheres of Nivonia perish to satisfy my own prophecy. If the Gods wish that mortals believe by the dread of death alone, the meaning of my name is forever lost to them.

Children, I would bid you believe by greater means.

For a truth my own will yet unfold. Of it, born a future unforetold. Nivonia’s final hours are near at hand. The dark empire will fall before the dawn, and in the dust of so much innocence, lost to their grasp, the dead will yet find life.

For, of that ageless memory of harmony and light, of promises forgotten, yet kept... some few pieces still remain.

And in the cold and quiet veil of night... they are moving.

• • •

Miles McClellan’s invigorating epic Vigil of the Ageless chronicles the daring departure of two friends from their home planet, Vonasta, aboard a spaceship… made of wood. Accompanied only by the vessel’s mysterious and charming captain, they embark upon a journey of newfound adventure, self-discovery, and total escape only to find themselves, and their worlds, utterly torn apart.

A visionary piece of storytelling rich in detail and provocative in its emotions, Book I beckons readers to uncover the value of tragedy and hope as they follow the breathtakingly perilous journey of Sara Avalindia. Insatiably pursuing her as they overtake the very world around her, the machinations of the methodical Mythadion Protectorate force her to confront the most meaningful, yet unknown realities of her very life. In tandem, the book welcomes readers into the fighting heart of her friend Lorren, a youthful, skilled warrior determined to be reunited with Sara even as he is pulled violently into the world’s descent into the dark.

Inspiring, thoughtful, and arresting, McClellan’s story of faith and doubt, questions and answers, and life and death is destined to stir your soul, enrapture your heart and pierce your mind.

Only the first entry in a series of works connected and interconnected with one another, Vigil of the Ageless is a two-part novel over five years in the making. The gripping conclusion is due next year, and will be available for first-time readers and Book I readers alike.

A life-long fantasy writer and storyteller, author Miles McClellan has drawn many of his most beloved characters onto one stage, weaving into this story the deeper threads of a mythology that far transcends any single set of books.