I was raised for greatness, molded for prestige. Yet somehow, under all that weight, a small sparrow finds me-perched on my head like I'm just another tree in the garden. As if my life isn't absurd enough. The Beginning After the End OC Story, Cole's own adventurers.

Toren Daen entered the Central Cathedral feeling hope, ready to challenge the High Vicar and prove his soul. He left it broken, his wings sundered and torn. But Toren has a spark; an ember of fire left in his heart that the people around him strive to rekindle. And if Fate is kind, he may just rise from this defeat like the ghostly phoenix bound to his soul. Toren knows he can help the world he has found himself in. Now, the only task is to flap the butterfly's wings-because Toren hopes to change the outcome of the Dicathian war. But it will not be so simple. The Scythes loom about him like the blades of executioners, always watching and waiting. The twisted politics of Alacrya have sunk their claws deep into Toren's soul, and though he may set foot on another continent with the hopes of giving the Dicathians a chance, those he cares for will always chain his heart. Arthur Leywin, twin Anchor for the Legacy, will not bend to the change Toren heralds so easily. Seris Vritra has plans of her own for Toren as they enter the war in Darv, and there is no telling if his desires fit anywhere within her schemes. The Hearth looms as a beacon of hope: if Toren lives long enough to make it there. And behind it all, two gods play a game of chess: and they both have a question on their minds as the war of lessers reaches a crescendo. How many times can a phoenix die before it will no longer rise from the ashes? (Part 2/3 of Discordant Note) (Part 1: Discordant Note | TBATE) (Part 3: Discordant Note: Requiem | TBATE) (Updates Tuesdays/Saturdays) (Cover art commissioned by @_aphora_)

Lady Dawn expected to die. After casting her soul to the wind, taking a one-in-a-million chance to escape the wretched dungeons of Taegrin Caelum, the once-caged songbird of the Asclepius wishes nothing more than to find her Hearth and warn them of the coming danger. Instead, she's found herself a shade, anchored to a young man who knows far too much-and with far less hope than she'd started with. Toren Daen, for his part, only wanted to make it home safely. Now he's in a world taken straight from the page, questioning what is real and what is fiction, and scrambling to make something worthwhile. And with his foresight, there's only one way that Toren can see to keep this new world safe: prevent the descent of the Legacy. But those in power will not make it easy: Nico Sever is in a league of power all on his own, and Arthur Leywin bears the burden of Fate a continent away. In this familiar-yet-not world of mana, monsters, and looming deities, any misstep along the roads of Alacrya and the High Sovereign's Dominion could lead to a Fate worse than death. But what is death to a phoenix? With a burning secret in his mana core, knowledge of the future, and a maelstrom of fears and questions, Toren might just survive to be more than what Lady Dawn expected him to be. He might just survive to waylay the encroaching tide of death in the proxy war between raging asura clans. More than all of that, he might just live. (Semi-SI into Alacrya, character-focused story. Part 1 Complete.) (Part 1/3 of Discordant Note) (Part 2: Discordant Note: Crescendo | TBATE) (Part 3: Discordant Note: Requiem | TBATE) (Cover art commissioned by @_aphora_)