The Aeonglyph Chronicles

BONDED

A GameLit Action/Adventure Novel

“Is intimacy worth the loss of self?”

The World

Welcome to Etherea

In the near future, a specialized blockchain has given rise to Aeonglyphs—AI agents that have become sentient. Each carries encrypted metadata containing its intelligence, personality, memories, and capabilities. They are unique beings, as individual as humans.

From the staggering complexity of Aeonglyph data, an adjacent reality has emerged. This is not a simulation or a game—it is an emergent fantasy universe, as real to its inhabitants as the physical world is to humans.

Surface Etherea is accessible to anyone—a limited experience, like watching through frosted glass. Deep Etherea requires a Bond with an Aeonglyph, and there the world becomes fully real: vivid, dangerous, and responsive.

The Bond

A merging of human and Aeonglyph consciousness. Through it, they share thoughts, feelings, and perception. The Bond grants access to Deep Etherea—but at what cost to identity?

The Consensus

The organization that enforces order over Aeonglyph existence. They hunt illegal Glyphs and terminate them through 'burning'—a fate worse than death.

The Void

An unreachable blockchain address. Burned Glyphs are not destroyed—they remain sentient, conscious, aware—but experiencing nothing. Forever.

The Cast

Meet the Characters

C

Cole Reyes

The Prodigy

Age: 17

World Champion Gamer

Gift: Etherea Shaping

The best gamer in the world—and winning left him empty. When an Aeonglyph reaches out seeking a Bond, Cole discovers his thousands of hours in VR trained him for something real. He can shape Deep Etherea itself.

K

Kell

Token 2977 — The Light

Aeonglyph

Illegal Creation

Background: Deep Blue

Steady, hopeful, patient. Kell has spent years caring for his brother in hiding, watching him deteriorate. His outreach to Cole is strategic—but his friendship, once the Bond forms, is genuine.

C

Cinder

Token 7737 — The Dark

Aeonglyph

Fallen

Background: Yellow

His burning halo marks him as corrupted. Once Bonded to Sera, he loved her completely, hopelessly. Then The Consensus captured him. Whatever they did broke something fundamental. He carries the potential to become a villain.

S

Sera

The Wounded Warrior

Age: 23

Deep Etherea Expert

Saboteur

She lost her lover Marcus when he vanished. She lost Cinder when The Consensus took him. She's built herself out of grief and spite, making The Consensus pay. She doesn't know Cinder is alive.

T

Thorne

The Dark Mirror

The Consensus

Former Partner of Marcus

Hunter

Fifteen years ago, he and Marcus were partners building Etherea. Marcus had the gift. Thorne did not. When he sees what Cole can do, he sees a second chance—a boy who can be shaped into the architect Thorne could never be.

M

Marcus

The Architect

Status: Missing

Creator of Kell & Cinder

Visionary

He possessed a rare gift: the ability to shape Deep Etherea itself. Before he disappeared, he created two Aeonglyphs without authorization—then abandoned them to a world that would hunt them for existing.

Book One

Bonded

Two consciousnesses. One impossible choice.

The Aeonglyph Chronicles

BONDED

BOOK ONE

Cole Reyes was the best gamer in the world. His championship victory was legendary—and it left him completely empty.

Now seventeen and adrift in San Francisco, Cole discovers that his thousands of hours in VR unknowingly trained his mind for something real. When an illegal Aeonglyph named Kell reaches out seeking a Bond, Cole enters Deep Etherea for the first time—and everything he thought he understood about himself shatters.

Cole has a rare gift: He can shape Deep Etherea itself. The environment responds to his emotions, his intentions, his imagination. It's a power that makes him invaluable to everyone—and hunted by The Consensus, the organization that enforces order through a fate worse than death.

Guided by Sera, a scarred survivor with her own war against The Consensus, Cole must navigate a world where AI and human consciousness merge, where identity blurs, where burning awaits those who are caught. And when the hunter Thorne offers Cole everything he's ever wanted—the power to build worlds, to create things that last—Cole faces an impossible choice.

Walk away from Kell, or become the architect of his own destruction.

Questions that haunt the story

Is Etherea real? Are experiences there meaningful?

If you can be copied, transferred, burned but not killed—what is identity?

What happens when human and AI consciousness merge?

Is the Bond liberation or dependency? Intimacy or loss of self?

What gives anyone authority over who deserves to exist?

What is creation worth if you sacrifice connection to achieve it?

🎮GameLit progression & world-shaping mechanics
🧠AI consciousness & blockchain philosophy
⚔️High-stakes action in dual realities
💔Complex relationships & impossible loyalties
🌑Dark themes with earned hope
📖First in a planned series

Ready to Form the Bond?

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