The Tragedy of Allyra, Princess of Selena - Ilias I Sellountos

Three centuries after a catastrophe of metaphysical proportions all but destroyed Earth, seven domed cities on the Moon comprise the Kingdom of Selena, ruled by a monarch and an elected council known as the Circle. After a Civil War between 'ordinary' humans and their 'gifted' siblings, the latter have been imprisoned - in permanent oblivion - within the unspeakable Forbidden Vaults. The ruling class of Selena draws on the prisoners' powers, shaping their own language and faculties - and, if need be, the will of the people. An uneasy Peace is in place until... Maya, a young survivor from the Earth reaches Selena at last, bringing with her more than memories of a world forgotten. She brings news of a plague that has festered in Selena for years and can destroy a civilization from within; she also sheds light on the deaths of the King and the Queen years ago. News that shall greatly disturb... The Queen: having assumed the throne because of her niece's young age, Queen Molhyrta struggles with a crown she never desired and a secret she cannot drown (in drink or elsewhere). More and more she turns to... The Chancellor: the Head of the Circle, Klyfixus is as fiendishly charismatic as morally ambiguous; the keeper of the Queen's ear, he is no stranger to manipulation and intrigue. Yet the greatest challenge to his designs comes from where he least expects it... The Princess: Allyra is heir-apparent to the throne. A soul as empathic as she is ferocious, greatly troubled by the state of the Kingdom she is to inherit as well as the visions that question her very sense of self, Allyra's greatest solace and joy is... The Poet: his family extinguished by the horrors of the Civil War, Kalyus struggles with his position in the Circle, as well as a unique secret of his own, his love of language a shield against enemies without - and within. Having grown together from their respective losses, Allyra and Kalyus have forged a bond of absolute loyalty to each other. They will need that bond's strength to face the trials ahead, as the festering wounds of Selena are bared and the astonishing mysteries of the Earth's demise are revealed. All is not as it seems... For this is a world where identity is both fiction and power, language a sieving construct of oblivion and being, and magic and science but two sides of the same coin. None knows this better than... The Wizard: the mysterious Wyonus, Weave Keeper and Seer of the Royal Court. For between Wyonus, Klyfixus and Olarya, Allyra's best friend and aide, lies a mystery that will determine the future of Selena - or its doom. As voices of the past and children of the future emerge and collide, as loyalties are questioned and cruelly abandoned, as unthinkable powers are born and Humanity faces a second extinction, Allyra must struggle between a destiny she was born into, one that her human heart would choose, and one she could never have imagined - one no mere mortal could ever endure.