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Author’s Note: Welcome to Before the Thread Breaks
Hi everyone!!! I am so incredibly excited—and okay, a little bit terrified—to welcome you to my very first story! This is the first time I’ve ever written and posted a project of this scale—or any scale, really—and taking the leap to finally share it with all of you is a massive milestone for me. Please be warned, this is a story starting from the beginning of Rebecca Yarros’ Iron Flame and will include spoilers, so if you haven’t read all of Iron Flame and Onxy Storm yet, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Anyways, thank you from the bottom of my heart for clicking, taking a chance on a first-time author, and diving back into this world and these characters with me. Your time and support mean the absolute world to me. And of course, thank you to the wonderful Rebecca Yarros for creating a world so captivating to me that I just had to write my own spin on it.
At the center of this story is Athena Riorson. Sister of the one and only Xaden Riorson, she endured more as a child than anyone should have to, and those scars followed her into Basgiath. She’s intelligent, guarded, angry in ways she doesn’t always understand, and constantly caught between survival and vulnerability. Athena is not always easy to love, and she is definitely not always easy to understand, but she is fiercely human to me, and I hope she becomes that way to you too.
I’ve poured so much love, heart, and tension into these chapters. I truly hope you enjoy the ride, and I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments as the story unfolds!
Grab a cozy blanket, dive in, and enjoy Chapter One!
Content & Trigger Warnings
Before the Thread Breaks is a dark romantic fantasy featuring mature themes, intense psychological elements, and high-stakes survival. To ensure everyone has a safe and comfortable reading experience, please review the following non-spoiler warnings before proceeding:
Graphic Violence & Combat: Includes brutal hand-to-hand fighting, severe injuries sustained during military/dragon rider training, and intense battlefield scenarios.
Death & Grief: Depictions of public executions, the traumatic loss of family members, and the sudden, unforgiving casualties of fellow cadets within the quadrant.
Non-Consensual Themes & Coerced Consent: The story heavily explores the horror of a lack of bodily autonomy. While it does not feature graphic, physically violent sexual assault, it deeply examines a dynamic of ownership where a character is entirely stripped of her right to choose and cannot give legal or emotional consent.
Trauma & PTSD: Raw exploration of survival guilt, panic attacks, overwhelming mental static, and the long-lasting psychological scars left by childhood abandonment.
Physical Pain as a Coping Mechanism: Scenes where characters push their bodies far past breaking points, welcoming intense physical exertion or bruising friction as a way to quiet severe mental trauma and emotional overwhelm.
Please read with discretion. If these topics are difficult or triggering for you, please prioritize your mental well-being while navigating this story.
p.s. For digital character art, all hand-drawn by me, visit @InnectisMundos on instagram (I love Latin, can you tell?) :P
p.p.s. All rights to the Empyrean world and canon characters belong to Rebecca Yarros.