The First Layer

At twenty, Ashar Vale has already learned what it means to be passed over. In the Velkaryn Empire, the gifted are identified, registered, and put to use. Ashar was expected to join them. Instead, he studies at Kharast University, preparing for an ordinary imperial future while quietly tracking changes in the stars above the imperial gateworks, a vast complex enclosing a scarcely understood threshold to other realms.

Then a routine university expedition takes him into the first layer beyond the gate: a vast, alien wilderness the Empire has spent centuries bringing under control.

Ashar returns alive.

He does not return alone.

Something from beyond the gate has taken root inside him. Surviving it awakens senses and abilities he should not possess, while buried memories begin to surface around a past he no longer trusts.

Now discovery may be as dangerous as the presence sharing his body. To survive, Ashar must hide what he is becoming, uncover what was done to him, and seek answers beyond the Empire's approved paths.

Before whatever recognizes what he carries finds him first.

The First Layer is the opening novel of False Sky, a dark progression fantasy epic of forbidden knowledge, dangerous powers, and mysteries that reach from the realms beyond the gates to the stars above.