When the Moon Hatched

by Sarah A. Parker

In a world where dead dragons become moons and fallen moons become creatures of devastating power, Raeve is an assassin with a past she can't remember and a fallen moon that seems to remember her. When she's captured by a ruthless king, the collision between her buried identity and his desperate war threatens to unravel everything.

39 characters, locations, and items in this world codex.

Characters

• Agni — A Runi healer in Kaan's court who discovered the truth hidden beneath Raeve's scars — and was told by a princess to keep it buried.
• Arkyn Vaegor — The Scavenger King — a Vaegor half-blood who built an empire from cage fights and stolen children, burning with resentment toward the siblings who got
• Bulder — The Creator God of Ground — who sculpted mountains and continents, and whose song still echoes in every earthquake and landslide.
• Cadok Vaegor — King of The Fade — the twilight kingdom pinched between fire and darkness, ruled by a Vaegor who plays both sides and commits to neither.
• Caelis — The Creator God of the Aether — invisible, intangible, and imprisoned in a diadem for causing the moonfalls that killed dragons and shattered the sky.
• Clode — The Creator Goddess of Air — who swept wind across the world and whose manic episodes howl through every gale and tempest.
• Essi — Raeve's best friend — a girl she once rescued who was crafting a diamond-capped tooth the day she was murdered, and whose death cracked open the caref
• Haedon Nevan — Elluin's younger brother — the gentle prince of The Shade whose safety was the chain that bound his sister to a marriage she would rather have died th
• Ignos — The Creator God of Fire — who erupted volcanoes and forged the heat that powers The Burn's dragon-fire civilization.
• Kaan Vaegor — The King of the Burn who wears a melted crown and collected every shard of a fallen moon — because the woman he loved was inside it.
• King Ostern — The Vaegor patriarch who murdered the Nevan royal family to seize The Shade — a crime whose consequences echo through every kingdom and every one of h
• Kyzari Vaegor — The Princess of The Shade who wears the Aether Stone — a diadem containing an imprisoned god — without knowing her true parents or the cosmic weight b
• Pyrok — A member of Kaan's Imperial Court who assists the healers — steady, reliable, and trusted with secrets that could topple kingdoms.
• Raeve (Elluin Nevan) — An assassin called Moonplume who feels nothing — until a fallen moon shatters her careful numbness and reveals she may be a dead princess reborn from
• Rayne — The Creator Goddess of Water — whose tears become storms and whose grief fills the seas. When she mourns, the world drowns.
• Rekk Zharos — A bounty hunter who killed the wrong person's best friend — and discovered too late that the quiet assassin he was hunting carried something far worse
• Sereme — Raeve's handler in the Fiur du Ath rebellion — a woman who uses blood-binding to control her deadliest asset and calls it necessary.
• Slàtra — A Moonplume dragon who loved her rider so completely that when Elluin chose death, Slàtra wrapped around her and became a moon — and when that moon fe
• Tarik Relaken — A lord who profited from children fighting in cages — until an assassin walked into his Undercity operation and made it personal.
• Tyroth Vaegor — The usurper king of The Shade who stole a princess, claimed her child, and rules a kingdom of eternal darkness with the cold patience of someone who b
• Veya Vaegor — Princess of The Burn — scorned since birth for a death she didn't cause, fiercely loyal to the brother who never blamed her.

Locations

• Arithia — Capital of The Shade — a city of crystalline elegance and political poison, where moonlight replaces sunlight and secrets replace trust.
• Dhomm — Capital of The Burn — a fortress-city built on volcanic stone where Kaan rules from a throne he forged from conquest.
• Fiur du Ath — "From the Ashes" — a rebel network fighting the Vaegor tyranny from the shadows of Gore, using assassins, blood-binding, and the belief that the old o
• Gondragh — The Sabersythe spawning grounds — where The Burn's dragons hatch in volcanic heat and the air shakes with the sound of a hundred unborn dragons cracki
• Gore — A lawless city where assassins drink in hollow pubs and children fight in underground cages — the place Raeve calls home because it asks no questions.
• Netheryn — The Moonplume spawning grounds — the darkest, coldest crown of The Shade, where luminous dragons emerge from ice and the sky is so close you could tou
• The Boltanic Plains — The golden grasslands of The Burn where warrior clans forge the finest fighters in Ayrithia — and where Kaan earned his first crown before he took his
• The Burn — The sun-scorched kingdom of fire and dragon-flame — where Sabersythes nest in volcanic heat and a warrior-king rules from a throne he took by force.
• The Fade — The twilight kingdom pinched between fire and darkness — where Moltenmaw dragons flash every color and the king commits to nothing.
• The Hungry Hollow — A pub in Gore where an assassin once walked in disguised as a bard — and walked out with blood on her hands and a target crossed off her list.
• The Imperial Stronghold — Kaan's fortress in Dhomm — a mountain of black stone with chambers beneath that hold secrets worth killing for.
• The Shade — The kingdom of eternal darkness where Moonplume dragons drift through frozen skies — once ruled by the Nevan family, now held by a Vaegor usurper.
• The Undercity — The tunnels beneath Gore where children fight in cages and information is the only currency that matters more than blood.

Items

• Elemental Beads — Colored beads that declare your elemental affinity to the world — or, if you wear none, declare you worthless.
• Parchment Larks — Magical paper birds that carry messages between people — including one named Nee that Raeve kept because even an assassin needs something gentle to ho
• Slàtra's Shards — The scattered fragments of a dragon who became a moon — collected piece by piece by a king who could not let go.
• The Aether Stone — A diadem containing the imprisoned essence of a jealous god — worn by a child who doesn't know the universe's most dangerous prisoner lives on her bro
• The Melted Crown — A crown half-melted by dragonfire and reshaped by the man who killed its previous owner — because Kaan doesn't believe in inherited authority, only ea

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