Abstract

In the impoverished village of Binbo, nine-year-old Cilde enters the forbidden forest in search of food and eats the fruit of the Alfheim—home to the evil alfkins that once enslaved humans. When she returns unharmed, she is denounced as a neverlisk—marked by the alfkin forever—and is sold by her parents to the buldwarks, a militant order sworn to defend humanity.

The buldwarks put her to the reapor test: if Cilde touches the stone and it transforms into a weapon, she will be identified as a synth—someone who can wield the second form of the reapor and use it to kill the alfkin. However, once Cilde does the test, the reapor enters her body and awakens within her, identifying her as a synth who can track others like her.

As Cilde rises through the buldwark ranks, she harbors a singular hope: to win back her parents’ love. But after the Exposium, a public trial in which Cilde officially wins her buldwarkian status, she discovers that her younger sister, Arina, is also a synth. Yet, unlike Cilde, Arina is cherished, protected, and kept hidden.

Realizing she has only been a tool, Cilde escapes the buldwarks with the help of her mentor, Andricus, who gifts her with a new ability called thirling. With these new powers, Cilde comes to the conclusion that if she cannot earn love, she will merely steal it.

Arathis Chronicles: The Beginning explores themes of fear, exploitation, and the consequences of childhood neglect as one seeks to fill one’s void through material gain.