Defunct (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781039450219)

A young half-elf learns he's the secret heir of a murdered king and resolves to claim his father's magic and save his country in this progression fantasy.

In the world of Alterra, forged from the ruins of Ragnar and a nearly forgotten Earth, magic is everywhere. Despite this, half-elf Kiru and his mother live a quiet existence in a remote village where nothing ever happens. Nothing, that is, until the day Kiru gets into a fight with a rich lordling who breaks his spine.

Fleeing their small town together, Kiru's mother confesses an astonishing truth to her son: he is royalty, the son of the murdered King Ruken Chromebane, monarch of the Kingdom of Blades, who was wrongly accused of being a tyrant because of his rare magical abilities.

Soon, Kiru begins to feel his father's unique brand of mana within himself. This power, the half-elf discovers, was all that stood between the kingdom and invasion by an army of dragons. If he can harness it, he'll be able to control his broken body and travel the continent in search of the king's lost treasures, eventually claiming his own rightful place on the throne.

Accompanied by William the imp and Brunhilda, dwarven paladin in the Order of Valhalla, Kiru sets out to restore his father's legacy and save his country. Stop one: the Royal Cultivation Academy, where Kiru must navigate a complex web of relationships and personality types--all while hiding his outlawed power--to recover the first of the slain king's items . . . before it's too late.