Avery Hendrex

“Fools dwelling in ignorance, yet imagining themselves wise and learned, go round and round in crooked ways, like the blind led by the blind.” –Swami Paramananda. A broken royal family. A fifth element among the four. Two warring cultures and a lost prince destined to unite them. After years of hiding in the slums with a resentful mother, Ezra reenters high society under the guise of a scholarship student at a prestigious military academy. Having endured his fair share of grueling hardships, he believes he knows how the world works. The line is clear. There are the highborn and the desert rats. Just as divided as his kingdom, Ezra’s blunt perceptions are about to be challenged by his enigmatic uncle. Their unexpected reunion sets things into motion and turns Ezra's life upside down. From that point onward, he finds himself in a game of half-truths and mysteries, all seemingly orchestrated by his ever-scheming uncle, who is incapable of giving straight answers. Unbeknownst to Ezra, his uncle is playing high stakes, and falling behind or refusing to participate is not a viable option.

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” – Soren Kierkegaard. He’d kept his head buried in the sand long enough. By having remained willfully ignorant, he’d lost something dear. Haunted by his uncle’s cruel life lesson, Ezra is determined to unearth the truth. And not just any truth, but the truth surrounding his uncle—if he can even call him that. However, truth is a fickle beast, and Ezra’s quest to find answers unlocks inexplicable abilities that incur the attention of enemies who seek to destroy him. Already having to navigate the cutthroat society of aristocrats, who consider him a mere obstacle to the throne, Ezra has to rely on his uncle to stay afloat. But Ezra doesn’t know if he can trust this new version of Josiah. With the blindfold no longer obscuring the harsh realities, Josiah’s ulterior motives become painfully evident. Amidst all the chaos and uncertainties, Ezra couldn’t be surer of one thing: He would have no part in fulfilling Josiah’s master plan.

“As she has planted, so does she harvest; such is the field of karma.” –Sri Guru Granth Sahib. An inevitable reckoning shadows the heels of those who must now reap what they’ve sowed. An influential kingdom built on wealth and deceit will fracture and fall from grace. Haughty gods, drunk off greed and supremacy, will topple from pedestals built by mortal veneration. And a remorseful puppeteer, who has grown to worship his marionette, must readapt to the weight of severed strings. Already tormented by his predetermined role in the god realm, Ezra faces external pressures from meddling gods who want more from him than he’s willing to give. He struggles to maintain control of his own destiny and the goals he vows to achieve before it’s too late. But time is not a luxury afforded to him. With new temptations keeping him tethered to the one place he calls home, Ezra finds himself racing against the clock to delay the inevitable. However, very few succeed in outracing Fate, and those who do succeed spin a cautionary tale: Fate is a spiteful loser.