Kristine Castillo Negron
Indie author of The Fall Before Flight, an epic fantasy novel.
Available now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and online retailers everywhere!
About
The Fall Before Flight
Read more about my book, including a summary and content warnings.
Characters
Meet the main characters of The Fall Before Flight!
Lore
Learn more about the world of Obsthea, the fantasy setting of The Fall Before Flight and Kristine's future stories.
About
The Fall Before Flight
Rhu Farrier is determined to save her best friend and end the war between the Risen Union and the Kedrel Empire. She isn’t about to let losing a leg stop her.Two thousand years after a powerful mage Lessened dragons from enormous beasts to scaled humanoids, another decades-long war ravages the land of Obsthea. Rhu’s mission is simple: kill the Kedrelli emperor, no matter the cost. But when Rhu loses her leg in battle, her best friend Loren is sent to complete the mission in her stead. Rhu and Loren both know he won’t make it to the Kedrel capital alive. He’s not an assassin. He’s a simple soldier—honest and forthright and a terrible liar. Despite her new disability, Rhu journeys to Kedrel to help Loren complete the assassination that should have been hers to carry out.Daxian Cloud is a loyal dragon. Not like the Oathbreakers—rebels who have forsaken the oath of servitude all dragons took during the Lessening. A dragon without the Oath is a dragon without honor. So, when Oathbreakers strike his mistress’s estate, Daxian doesn’t question the order to execute them. Until the hood falls from an Oathbreaker’s face. Until his beloved little sister is revealed to be one of them.Everest Naught is a frail, asthmatic orphan—a little "nothing" in the world. When he meets a blacksmith's apprentice, his lonely life changes. He has a friend now and his own apprenticeship with the illustrious Lady of House Kleven. Everest longs to be powerful, to be more than nothing. But when the time comes to make sacrifices, is Everest prepared for them now that he has something to lose?The Fall Before Flight is a character-driven epic/high fantasy novel with a complex magic system and rich world-building.Content Warnings
The Fall Before Flight contains graphic violence and medical procedures, slavery, suicide attempts, mental illness, racism, colonialism, and imprisonment. Please take care of your mental health when reading!Publishing Information
Published by CastleSong Books
ISBN-13: 979-8-218-70844-3
Characters
Rhu Farrier
An infiltrator with the Risen Union, Rhu acts as a spy and assassin behind enemy lines in the Kedrel Empire. She was born in the Kedrel capital of Talavra, but fled the country with her mother just prior to the start of the War of Secession. As a refugee in the Risen Union, she spent many years homeless until she joined the Unionist military at age 17. She is compassionate, loyal, and exceedingly stubborn.Daxian Cloud
Daxian is a Lessened dragon of the Sky Clan, sworn to service under House Kleven of Kedrel. As a guardian, he is trained to fight the enemies of House Kleven and protect the leader of the House at all costs. His only living family is his beloved sister, Zira. As a loyal dragon, he strongly believes in the Oath and its importance in dragon society. Daxian is stoic, serious, and honorable to a fault.Everest Naught
Orphans without a family name are considered "little nothings", and Everest is no different. Having never known his parents, he is "naught" but a slip of a child, almost forgotten in a Talavran orphanage. He is often bullied by the larger children in the orphanage and longs for a friend and a way out of his dismal life. Everest is intelligent, lonely, and desperately ambitious.
Lore
The Fall Before Flight takes place in a fantasy world called Obsthea. Two thousand years before the events of the novel, a war between mages and dragons ravaged the land. To end the war, a great mage named Arthurn Tandros cast a spell, Lessening all dragonkind. Instead of giant winged lizardlike creatures, dragons became humanoid: wingless, two-legged, scaled people with faces instead of snouts. Thus, Tandros ended the fighting without taking any further dragon lives.In the wake of the Lessening, the newly transformed dragons were at a loss of how to live with their new bodies. The dragons then swore an Oath that they would serve all humankind, providing their labor in exchange for the humans' mercy. Honorable dragons know that the Oath keeps them from returning to their savage natures that had once caused so much bloodshed.Arcane magic gradually disappeared after the Lessening; mages are considered largely extinct in the current era. Worshipers of the Risen Mother will sometimes be granted divine blessings that allow a select few of Her faithful to heal wounds and illnesses.For more about the lore of Obsthea, read The Fall Before Flight and subscribe to my Substack newsletter for updates and tidbits of Obsthea's history!