Magic has always been easy-speak the words, shape the rune, take the flame.
Until the day it starts to stutter.
When spells misfire across the realm-healing charms reopening wounds, wards turning predatory, sacred fire burning the faithful-arcane historian Ilyra Voss discovers a pattern no council wants named: magic isn't running out. It's being cut off, like a living thing losing breath.
In forbidden archives and ash-coded libraries, Ilyra uncovers a truth buried beneath centuries of "safe" doctrine:
The First Flame was a Dragon.
And it isn't dead-only imprisoned, slowly suffocating while the world siphons its breath to power every spell ever cast.
As rival factions rise-a fanatical cult demanding total freedom and a cold priesthood insisting magic must die-war threatens to ignite on the very leylines that hold the prison together. The ruling council moves to erase the truth, branding Ilyra a threat to "stability" and dragging her into a brutal ritual meant to strip her magic forever.
But the deeper Ilyra goes, the clearer the real choice becomes:
Free the First Dragon and risk an exhale that could burn the world back to its beginning...
Or keep it choking and watch magic-and civilization-collapse into darkness.
There may be only one path left: rewrite the system itself, turning theft into exchange, power into partnership, and spellcraft into something that must be asked for-not taken.
The First Flame Was a Dragon is a sweeping dark-fantasy thriller of forbidden knowledge, collapsing empires, and a world forced to confront the cost of its "everyday miracles." Perfect for readers who love ancient mysteries, high-stakes magic systems, moral dilemmas, and mythic-scale revelations.
