By Blood and Ashes
In the heart of the empire, House Velcraven stood as a legend of power, feared for their dark blood magic and ruthless might. Their name was synonymous with strength, their red eyes a mark of nobility, and their rituals a gateway to unearthly force. At the center of their bloodline was Katherine, the youngest heir, born under a prophecy that declared her the future of her house.
Her birth was marked by tragedy: her mother perished in childbirth, a sign of strength according to Velcraven tradition, for to kill in birth was to claim dominion. Yet this triumph was short-lived. When Katherine completed her Rite of Passage—drinking the blood of her ancestors—she gained the power of twenty men, but at a price: her very life would now depend on the blood she drained from others. No longer could she live in peace; she must feed or succumb to death.
But the day of her ascension brought more than just power. She began seeing visions—cryptic whispers from the past, a woman shrouded in shadows, who seemed to be her long-dead ancestor. The woman shows her a vision of destruction, and of a war that would tear her house apart.
Before Katherine could warn her family, the great houses of the empire, in league with the emperor himself, set their treacherous scheme in motion. Stormhold, the Velcraven ancestral castle, was engulfed in flames. Her father, seeing her gift as a sign of ancient power, managed to send Katherine away in secret, safeguarding the last hope of the Velcraven bloodline.
But her family stayed behind to face the slaughter, their names lost to the ravages of war. Alone in a foreign land, Katherine must learn to survive, to feed, and to rebuild her house to its former glory. The blood of her ancestors courses through her veins, guiding her path as she seeks vengeance against the cowardly houses that betrayed her—and the emperor who plotted her house’s downfall.
With visions haunting her every step and the weight of her lineage upon her shoulders, Katherine will carve her way through a world that knows nothing of House Velcraven and everything of its wrath.
