This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.

The morning mist clung to the ancient ruins like the breath of sleeping gods, obscuring the carved faces that had watched over the valley for a thousand years. Lyra Thornwood pressed her palm against the weathered stone of the great archway, feeling the familiar tingle that had drawn her to this place every dawn since her sixteenth birthday. The sensation was stronger today, pulsing through the granite like a heartbeat awakened from eternal slumber.

"You feel it too, don't you?" The voice belonged to Kael Ironbound, her childhood friend and now apprentice to the village blacksmith. His dark eyes reflected the same wonder and unease that had been growing in Lyra's chest for weeks. The ruins had always been a place of mystery in their small village of Millhaven, but lately, something had changed. The very air seemed to hum with invisible energy.

Lyra nodded, unable to find words for the sensation coursing through her veins. It was as if the stone itself was alive, whispering secrets in a language her heart understood but her mind could not decipher. The ancient archway stood thirty feet tall, its surface covered in intricate symbols that seemed to shift and dance when she wasn't looking directly at them. Local legends spoke of a great kingdom that once flourished here, ruled by beings who could command the very elements, but most dismissed such tales as mere folklore.

"My grandmother used to say the stones would sing again when the kingdom needed its guardians," Kael continued, his voice barely above a whisper. "I thought it was just another old story."

The wind picked up suddenly, carrying with it the scent of something impossible in this season, something like spring flowers and rain-washed earth. Lyra's auburn hair whipped around her face as she felt the pull stronger than ever before. Without conscious thought, she stepped through the archway, and the world exploded into light.