The Elder Empire: Shadow

The Consultant’s Guild has served the Aurelian Empire for over 1,000 years, working in the darkness to hunt dissension and eliminate traitors. Now, the Emperor is dead. For Shera, an assassin in the employ of the Consultants, the Emperor’s death is the beginning of a nightmare. Powerful forces hunt the Heart of Nakothi, a cursed artifact that can raise a second Emperor...and corrupt him in the process. But some desire power at any cost. The Guild of Navigators, an infamous collection of swindlers and pirates, has been paid a fortune to secure the Heart.

The Heart of Nakothi has been lost, the Consultants were victorious, and the Empire remains free of Elder control. For now. Shera has become a Soulbound, but with her new powers comes a terrifying burden. Her Soulbound Vessel has begun to poison her mind, slowly transforming her into a monstrous, bloodthirsty killer. Meanwhile, Calder Marten and his Imperialist Guilds have begun to work against the Consultants...even to the point of raising their own band of homegrown assassins. Assassins with unique ties to Shera's past.

Shera, the new Head of the Consultant’s Guild, faces more responsibility than she ever asked for. The Guilds are in a state of open war, her Consultants have been forced to relocate from their ancestral home, and Elder cultists plague the streets. In their tombs, the Great Elders stir. With the sky cracked and more Elders rising than ever before, Shera and her faction of Independent Guilds seek a truce with their Imperialist opponents. But they know that any alliance is a gamble.