This story takes place in the Darkness Within Saga world and is book 1 of a spin-off Origins series.

After the death of Sokn’s High King and the theft of several volatile bloodstone runes by rebel Ama Taugr necromancers, Jarl Engier War-Blood unites the northern clans in an effort to defend a rundown fortress situated over the last Sokn bloodstone mine. The rare mineral is the only source of power known to raise the dead and when the necromancers come for it, Engier and his allies quickly find themselves cornered and outnumbered by an army of walking dead. At the height of battle, Sokn is hit by a series of earthquakes and the land breaks apart, forcing Engier and fellow Jarl, Brenna Kaesia, to watch helplessly as the large area around them breaks off from the mainland and drifts out to sea.

With the undead silenced by the effects of the quakes, Engier must lead the remaining clans up into the peaks of Freyja’s Grace to seek answers from a group of magical pariahs. The exiled Skeyth have a questionable past and a violent reputation, but they also possess powerful magic, and hopefully, answers. But when the ground continues to shake and the days pass, it quickly becomes clear that though the Skeyth have kept what remains of Sokn afloat, they cannot stop it from running aground on another landmass. Believing they have been stranded on the dimension of Utgard, the home of the giants, Engier and Brenna rally the last of their people in a desperate attempt to survive this new world and the thriving magic they find there.

However, the Northmen are not the only ones to survive the journey from Sokn and when the Skeyth’s vile actions against the Orotaq lead Engier and Brenna to war, the Northmen find an unexpected ally in Talohna’s Guardian Pact. Together they must face an apocalyptic Cataclysm and a dangerous foe unlike any they have fought before.

The consequences of both will be felt far into the future as their decisions affect modern-day Talohna and Kael Symes’ struggle against a re-emerging race of powerful Ancient beings.

Contains mature content.