Lanterns and Leviathans

Nimmi’s ordinary morning goes horribly wrong when she wakes up to a shattered workshop window and her most precious glass lanterns smashed to pieces. But instead of crying, the supposedly airheaded artisan cheerfully sweeps up the shards and turns them into a breathtaking stained-glass mosaic that immediately triples in value. Across the street, her seemingly loyal childhood best friend, Janna, grinds her teeth in frustration. Janna has contracted a Fate-Thief System that siphons energy every time Nimmi feels insecure, but Nimmi's unshakeable optimism and her fiercely loyal neighborhood friends are starving the parasite to death. While Janna scrambles to complete impossible sabotage missions, Nimmi is busy romancing the grumpy canal-warden, Renzo, and trying to track down the cute 'gutter-sprite' that keeps stealing her defective lamps. Unbeknownst to everyone, the two girls' plot lines are actually one and the same. The System is terrified of an awakening Abyssal Leviathan, urging Janna to steal Nimmi's luck to survive the coming apocalypse. But how is Janna supposed to defeat a world-ending monster when the dread Leviathan is just Nimmi's overgrown gutter-sprite, acting like a giant, glowing puppy begging for more toys?