Finalist in the WLT manuscript Contest for Science Fiction and Fantasy When dawn comes in ash and fire, Denny should run. Instead, he watches his village burn, and a dying Draken Watcher presses the ancient Song of the Veym into his chest. The Song is not power. It is living memory, older than law, and it does not belong to humans. Bound to it, Denny becomes the center of a conflict he never wanted. Across Vaeritas, Kaelari, a newly risen Bloodstone leader, fights to protect her people from ambition and collapse, while Albion, a law-forged Draken bound by broken oaths, hunts the Song as a necessary correction to a world that has begun to change too fast. To survive, Denny must cross tribal borders, defy tradition, and reach the forgotten rites of Seravai to learn what the Song truly demands. Every choice reshapes the Veym itself. Failure will not simply kill him. It will hollow the world, still its becoming, and leave existence trapped in silence. A mythic, character-driven epic fantasy about memory, responsibility, and whether change can be guided without being destroyed.
Author
Daniel Sheley has been telling stories for most of his life, shaped early by myth, folklore, and writers such as Thomas Malory and William Shakespeare. Those influences, combined with lived experience, inform his focus on character, belief, and the cost of choice. He served in the U.S. Navy in both technical and leadership roles, experiences that deepened his understanding of systems, pressure, and human behavior. He is the award-winning author of Heartcoil, Lux Mendacium, and For Scales Alone (2026 Indies Today Awards – 2nd Runner-Up in Urban Fantasy). His forthcoming novel, The Soul-Sung, was a finalist in the Writers’ League of Texas Manuscript Contest and launches The Vaeritas Saga. Daniel lives in Midland, Texas, with his wife and blended family and continues to explore the space where myth, memory, and meaning meet through his fiction.
