Aethera is a celestial kingdom held safe by a single sealing crystal. VEX, the king's bastard son, has waited his whole life for a throne he will never inherit — so he shatters the crystal, and a gate that has been shut for a thousand years opens. Hundreds of winged shadows come through first. Then the Demon Warlord himself. CASSINA, the warrior princess, and THERON, a common soldier, hold the breach while the cavalry crashes in behind them. Her father, KING VALORIAN, takes the field. A fantasy short about the cost of winning.