This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.

The morning mist clung to the cobblestones of Valdris like ghostly fingers, reluctant to release their grip on the ancient city. Lady Seraphina Morganthal adjusted her dark cloak as she moved through the narrow alleyways, her footsteps barely audible against the worn stones. Few knew that the Duke's eldest daughter possessed skills far beyond those expected of nobility—skills that had been honed in secret chambers beneath the family estate, where shadows danced with steel and silence was as sharp as any blade.

The letter she carried felt heavier than parchment had any right to feel. Its contents had arrived at dawn, delivered by a raven whose black eyes held an intelligence that unnerved even her. The message was simple yet devastating: her younger brother Marcus had been captured by the rebel forces threatening the kingdom's eastern borders. The ransom demanded was not gold or jewels, but something far more precious—the ancient sword of House Morganthal, Dawnbreaker, which had been blessed by the first kings and was said to hold power over light itself.

Seraphina's fingers unconsciously moved to the wrapped bundle at her side. Dawnbreaker rested there, its presence both a comfort and a burden. She had taken it from her father's study without permission, knowing that Duke Aldric would never willingly trade the family's most sacred heirloom, even for his son's life. Some prices, he would say, were too high to pay. But Seraphina disagreed—no price was too high for family.