The first chain snaps without warning. Tiern feels it in his hands before he hears it in the sky.

For forty years, the city of Paradigm has hung suspended above a world declared contaminated. The chains are worshiped as salvation, iron links holding the last of humanity aloft.

Tiern knows better.
He built them.
And he knows what they are really holding back.

As Paradigm’s lead alchemist, he has spent decades maintaining two things: the iron, and the lie that keeps the city from asking what waits below. When rust begins to glow and green heat pulses beneath his palm, Tiern recognizes the truth he buried. Something in the dark is waking up.

Then Sena appears. She is the daughter he erased from his own memory to survive what he had done. She brings no accusation. Only the truth he tried to kill inside himself and the warning that the chains cannot hold much longer.

With the Crestveil gathering overhead and ancient Ethereals turning their gaze toward the failing city, Tiern must descend into the emerald dark he once sealed away. To save what remains of humanity, he must face the world he condemned and the grace he never believed he deserved.

CHAINS OF PARADIGM is an atmospheric speculative fantasy about impossible choices, buried truths, and the moment grace meets those brave enough to stop running. It is the first book in the CITIES IN THE RECORD series.