In a fantasy world of living forests and crystalline cities, panda-like warden Lauri Vatanen wants only to be left alone with his grief. He finds a fragile peace in the bottom of his nectar flask, a potent drink that dulls the memory of a past failure. This last comfort is stolen when the very source of his solace begins to weep a black, corrosive blight, threatening to consume everything he has sworn to protect. Forced into a terrifying sobriety, Lauri knows he cannot fight the decay alone. His only lead points into the hostile heartland of the Regalis regime—a society of rigid order that despises his people's freedom. When captured by a patrol led by the severe Officer Anastasya Orlova, Lauri becomes a prisoner, his unique knowledge of the blight his only currency. What began as a quest for a cure becomes an act of treason. Pursued by a fanatic Justicar who brands their cooperation as heresy, the unlikely pair uncovers a conspiracy that defies belief: the blight is not an accident but a weapon. Their only hope lies in a legend, the Sunken Song, a precursor artifact with the power to rewrite nature itself. But activating it carries a terrible price. Lauri must make an impossible choice: trust Anastasya and risk giving the architects of the plague a tool of unimaginable power, or attempt a ritual that demands his own life force to save only a fraction of the world. He has already lost his home and his relationship with his clan; this choice will cost him everything he has left. To pull the world from cynical despair toward a flicker of sacrificial hope, Lauri must face the past he tried to drown. But can a man who ran from his own failure become the savior of a future he no longer believes in?
32 chapters
In a fantasy world of living forests and crystalline cities, panda-like warden Lauri Vatanen wants only to be left alone with his grief. He finds a fragile peace in the bottom of his nectar flask, a potent drink that dulls the memory of a past failure. This last comfort is stolen when the very source of his solace begins to weep a black, corrosive blight, threatening to consume everything he has sworn to protect. Forced into a terrifying sobriety, Lauri knows he cannot fight the decay alone. His only lead points into the hostile heartland of the Regalis regime—a society of rigid order that despises his people's freedom. When captured by a patrol led by the severe Officer Anastasya Orlova, Lauri becomes a prisoner, his unique knowledge of the blight his only currency. What began as a quest for a cure becomes an act of treason. Pursued by a fanatic Justicar who brands their cooperation as heresy, the unlikely pair uncovers a conspiracy that defies belief: the blight is not an accident but a weapon. Their only hope lies in a legend, the Sunken Song, a precursor artifact with the power to rewrite nature itself. But activating it carries a terrible price. Lauri must make an impossible choice: trust Anastasya and risk giving the architects of the plague a tool of unimaginable power, or attempt a ritual that demands his own life force to save only a fraction of the world. He has already lost his home and his relationship with his clan; this choice will cost him everything he has left. To pull the world from cynical despair toward a flicker of sacrificial hope, Lauri must face the past he tried to drown. But can a man who ran from his own failure become the savior of a future he no longer believes in?
World
