Eight

His name is Eight — not really, but that's what the System decided after a slip of the tongue. One moment he was heading home from the office; the next he woke on a hillside below a town wall, and the gate guard drove him off thinking he was a monster. There's an old man inside that eight-year-old body, and he'll use everything he's learned in sixty-four years to survive. Starting a fire, crafting a spear, defending the cave he calls home. There are allies too, but not the kind you'd expect. A story of magical survival — discovery, bushcraft, and creatures weird and wonderful.

Eight has carved a home out of the wilderness and met its inhabitants — killing some, befriending others. Things are looking cozy in a bushcraft kind of way, but a village to the east offers tools, resources, and new magic to learn. Where there are people, though, there are complications — including the murder-y kind. Add a few ghosts, giant beasts, and a new god, and life gets much harder for an old man in a young boy's body. Part mystery, part ghost story, and all adventure.

When a murderer turned monster escapes, the responsibility to avenge a fallen lodge master lands squarely on Eight's shoulders. The chase leads him and his hunter team to the nearby city of Albei, where political schemes, rival lodge intrigues, and assassins threaten to derail their mission. The stakes are higher, the enemies fiercer, and the shadow of the Long Dark looms ever closer. A novel of pursuit and peril, of urban struggles, and of a relentless dance with life, death, and magic.

Now sixteen, Eight is a fixture in both the Glen and Voorhei, helping defend his adopted homes from relentless monsters. When an expedition to the ruins of Old Baxteiyel is announced — framed as a deadly race to claim treasures within — Aslishtei's nieces have a different goal: uncovering the secrets of the fabled Arc of Knowledge. Dark warriors guard the ruins, and agents of the Maltran Empire lurk in the shadows. As Eight delves deeper, he confronts a growing yearning for the unknown and the toll it takes on those he loves — particularly Ikfael, who cannot stray far from her territory. A tale of daring exploration, cunning strategies, and the sacrifices demanded by ambition and love.

In the wake of Old Baxteiyel, Eight and Fala pursue a fleeing spy, only to uncover hints of a Maltran conspiracy called Project Birthright. One spy leads to another, and the two must take on new identities as they follow the trail through deep wilderness and into enemy territory — a heavily fortified stronghold beyond the reach of allies or rescue. Along the way, new powers awaken — deadly and strange — and every choice has the potential to reshape them in ways they can't take back. The final chapter in Eight's story: a tale of espionage and wilderness survival, of faith and transformation, and of a man who was never meant to be a hero but became one anyway.