THE AETHER CROWN CHRONICLES BOOK I THE ACADEMY DUEL

Lucien de Vauclair wants only one thing: enough freedom to be left alone.

As the unwanted third son of a powerful ducal house, his future is not his to choose. In a kingdom where noblewomen inherit titles, estates, and marriage authority, Lucien is little more than a valuable name waiting to be placed into someone else’s household.

Then he follows a forbidden set of coordinates into a storm.

Hidden beyond the legal edge of the charts lies a ruined floating sanctuary, an ancient command vessel, and Auréline—an artificial intelligence from a civilization whose machines modern engineers barely understand. The discovery gives Lucien the leverage to escape an unwanted marriage contract, but freedom comes with conditions.

The Crown sends him to Bellarive Academy, where the kingdom trains its future rulers, officers, engineers, diplomats, and political spouses. There he meets Élodie Marceau, a common-born healer whose power awakens forgotten machines, and Amélie de Rochefort, the proud ducal heiress publicly abandoned by the royal prince.

When the prince’s broken engagement becomes a constitutional crisis, Lucien agrees to fight as Amélie’s champion. Winning the duel only makes everything worse.

Every victory brings another title.
Every discovery attracts another faction.
Every attempt to protect the people he cares about risks becoming another form of control.

As academy rivalries escalate into sabotage, piracy, relic hunts, and foreign attack, Lucien, Élodie, and Amélie must decide whether trust can survive unequal laws, dangerous power, and a kingdom determined to claim everything they possess—including one another.

The Academy Duel is the first book of The Aether Crown Chronicles, a five-book French-inspired steampunk-magitech fantasy featuring political intrigue, academy life, airships, ancient technology, healing magic, slow-burn romance, and the rise of an unwilling hero who becomes more powerful every time he tries to escape responsibility.