Power always comes with a price.

Seventeen years ago, obsidian towers thousands of feet tall erupted from the earth near the world's population centers. Strange magic accompanied their appearance—powerful and inexplicable abilities granted to lucky humans, called Embers for the burning in their eyes.

Lyle isn't lucky, though. When the recently-unemployed college dropout finally manages to get his hands on a Cinder, he is utterly disappointed to find that he will never be an Ember like his father or brother. Before he even has time to process his failure, a strange Ember shoves him through a tear in reality and into the cave of a dragon, where the titanic beast claims to be an ancient goddess of myth and legend. She has a gift for him, but it comes with a warning.

War is coming.

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Confused about the rewrite? See my letter to previous readers here.