Istra Auralis

Claude is six years old when he figures out he’s not the only one living in his head.

There are voices—fragments of people who already lived and died. They share memories he shouldn’t have. Deaths that weren’t his. Skills he never trained. And they all agree on one thing: the gods are watching, and they’re bored.

In a world where anyone extraordinary gets noticed, noticed means harvested. The gods don’t intervene—they curate. They nudge interesting people into interesting situations and watch what happens. Entertainment for beings who’ve seen everything else.

So Claude learns to be uninteresting.

He trains in secret. Hides what he can do behind a blacksmith’s apprenticeship and a quiet life. Makes friends who can’t ever know what’s in his head. Keeps his eyes down when the God’s Eyes drift overhead, those floating orbs that tag anyone worth watching.

The voices teach him how to survive. How to stay small. How every single one of them got caught because they thought they were the exception.

But some things don’t stay hidden. Some people matter too much to walk away from. And when the system that runs on drama and blood finally turns its attention his way, Claude has to choose:

Stay safe and watch everyone he cares about get pulled into the story without him.

Or step into the light—and become exactly what the voices warned him not to be.