The Age of the Crystal Veil
For a thousand peaceful years, the realm of Aerwyn was held together by the Crystal Veil — a single, sky-wide gem that drank the moonlight at night and returned it as soft amber dawns. Twelve Keepers tended it, generation after generation, by a craft as humble as it was holy: aligning identical shards of crystal in patterns of three or more, and listening for the chord they sang back.
The Veil paid them back in kind. Its light cured the rot of every wheat field. Its hum quieted every infant in every cradle. Whole cities — Bellow, Hesper, the floating gardens of Caen — drew their warmth not from any sun, but from the Veil's slow heartbeat.
Kael Veyren was the youngest of the twelfth Keeper line. He learned the craft barefoot in the high towers, taught by Lyra Solène and by his elder cousin Aelina, who would one day wear the crown of Aerwyn. The three of them believed the world had always been like this, and always would be.