red_ashcroft
The Bastard Prince of Umbra
The perfect city above stands only because a broken one suffers beneath it.
Themis shines in glass and sunlight, a city that worships perfection. But far below its streets lies Umbra, a forgotten world where the unwanted, the inconvenient, and the discarded are left to survive in shadow.
Adrian Navarro was never meant to exist.
The illegitimate son of Themis's powerful mayor, he was abandoned to the darkness as a child-raised among the very people his father's city pretends do not exist. In Umbra, Adrian learned the rules of survival: patience, silence, and the strength to endure.
But when the fragile balance between the City Above and the world below begins to fracture, the bastard they buried may be the only one who can keep both cities from collapsing.
Because sometimes the shadow is not the enemy.
Sometimes it is the thing holding the light up.
Copyright Ā© 2026 by red_ashcroft. All Rights Reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events are either products of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, businesses, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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