Leaves the Capital

The first chapter began when the Bell of First Light rang beneath Dawnwatch after three silent centuries and Brother Caldus Venn was found murdered beside a breached solar vault. Five strangers followed the sun-key and Caldus’s coded warning into a history someone was still actively destroying. The archive fire established the eclipsed-sun conspiracy, Brighthollow showed that its reach extended beyond court politics, and Saint Orien finally revealed Queen Seraphine’s choice: the Crown had not been lost. She deliberately divided it after her astronomers witnessed a black star. The party recovered the Ember Shard and ended Prior Halvek’s corrupted vigil. The chapter closed with the first Dawnshard secured, the Eclipse Court established as an active enemy, and Nyra unexpectedly recognized by an ancient ward as an heir of the Veiled Flame.