Torn from the hushed halls of Oxford's Bodleian Library by a dragon scale blazing with temporal energy, historian Elara Vance plunges into Aethelgard, a world ruled by the Dragonborn – warriors bound to magnificent dragons. Now, a serpentine mark, imbued with the scale's power, pulses on her skin, marking her as the prophesied time traveler.
Two brothers, heirs to a bitter feud, hold Aethelgard's fate in their hands. Rhysand, the scholar-warrior, offers Elara sanctuary within his Obsidian Citadel, seeking her wisdom to mend time itself. But Gavril, from his shadowed Citadel of Whispers, sees in Elara a weapon, a key to ultimate power. Caught between their conflicting desires, Elara discovers her own connection to this world – a latent ability to speak with dragons, ignited by Lyra, a quicksilver dragon whose mind touches hers with echoes of forgotten magic.
Lyra reveals a terrifying truth: a parasitic being, the Chronophage, feeds on the brothers' conflict, manipulating time to unravel reality. Elara's arrival isn't just prophecy; it's a catalyst. Ancient alliances shatter, new rivalries ignite, and the very fabric of Aethelgard threatens to tear.
Guided by Lyra and aided by unexpected allies – a disillusioned scholar and a fierce dragon rider – Elara navigates treacherous political currents and deciphers the lost language of temporal magic. Her journey leads her through crumbling citadels guarded by forgotten dragonkin and across shimmering temporal rivers where past and future collide. But the Chronophage's influence runs deeper than she imagined, twisting entire clans to its will.
Elara must confront a choice not between two brothers, but between destiny and defiance. Can she harness the power within her, not to control time, but to heal it? Or will the Chronophage consume Aethelgard, and everything she has come to cherish, in its insatiable hunger? The prophecy isn't a cage; it's an echo of potential, and Elara must rewrite its narrative before time itself unravels.