The Fourth Crusade

The Fourth Crusade As armies gather and banners rise, the great city of Constantinople shimmers like a crown between worlds. But beneath its golden domes and crumbling saints, something older than empires begins to stir. The year is 1202. The West marches East under the banner of the cross-but faith is fractured, and loyalty is a currency too easily spent. Among the crusaders are the broken, the haunted, and the ambitious: Sir Alaric of Rouen, a disgraced knight fleeing the ash of Béziers. Anna Komnene the Younger, scholar and relic-binder, sworn to guard secrets the Church has tried to forget. Iñigo, a Castilian youth with a gift for sensing relics-and for hearing things no one else dares name. Lady Alix of Flanders, noble and dangerous, whose ambitions reach beyond the throne to the Flame itself. And The Keeper, a veiled figure marked by a vault that should never have been opened. Relics begin to bleed. Statues weep flame. The vaults beneath Hagia Sophia hum with memory. Whispers echo through the marble: the Flame is waking. But this is not a god. Not quite. It is something older-buried beneath faith and empire-long sealed in relic and rite. A force not divine, but remembering. As siege looms and betrayal coils through the ranks, a forgotten power prepares to speak again. And when it does, it will not ask for worship. It will ask for return.