Empire of Ashes
by Damian Shishkin

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Fifty years have passed since the Dark Lord was beaten, and little of what once was the Empire of Light remains. Humanity has risen high to take the reins of power in the vacuum left once the Imperial Grand Council, and is relentless in its pursuit to assert human kind as the new dominant force with all who oppose them running in fear. And tops in their list of enemies is the Harbinger himself; Aen. Aen withdrew completely from all life, and though he is mightily hunted, he has hidden in a place so isolated he cannot be found. Here, he obsesses over the promise he made to Iana. His soul broken from his losses, he sees the truth in all that has happened, and all that is beginning to transpire. He has awakened from his slumber and he is angry. A stranger appears, and her very presence threatens to unwind eons of carefully crafted plans. Her mission: seek out Aen, push him to complete this promise to Iana. But to do that, they will uncover secrets old enough to be forgotten by history, and meet races so ancient, they had become myths.

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Damian Shishkin was born and raised in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada. With his wife Jamie and son Jordan, he has a home in the quiet community he grew up in and enjoys time with them and his friends. An avid fan of Star Wars, Firefly, and the entire comic universe, Damian wanted to bring something different to the Sci-Fi genre, and did so with his epic tale of the sorrows of Aen. Beginning with Rise of Aen, he wove a tale of how much a soul could be pushed before it would break. In Ghosts of Lyarra and Thy Kingdom Come he pushed that thought even further, and now with the conclusive Empire of Ashes you get to see all the broken remains. Inspired by Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Stephen King, he is proud to end a long journey with this fourth and final piece to the puzzle.

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Damian Shishkin