The Black-Crane Vows

The story opens at the deathbed of Vordhal’s Chief Assessor, whose final, malicious act is denying both Dagna and Corvan their long-awaited promotions. To survive the devastating Gray-Blight rationing without their expected wages, Dagna, a ruthlessly calculating record-keeper, proposes a strictly practical marriage to her bitterest rival: Corvan, a meticulous, entirely unromantic accountant. They move into the towering, labyrinthine tenement of Black-Crane House to pool their survival coupons. But Black-Crane House is wrong. The neighbors smile too much, pry too deeply into their schedules, and stalk the gas-lit halls at night. As Dagna fiercely protects Corvan's reputation from the community's vicious, orchestrated smear campaigns, a slow, deep trust blossoms between the two practical minds. Meanwhile, Dagna investigates a string of missing tenement residents, while Corvan secretly audits a massive deficit in the city's coal reserves. The chilling twist? Their separate investigations are the exact same mystery. The missing coal is being used by their toxic neighbors to incinerate the missing residents and appease the encroaching Blight. In an eerie building that intends to swallow them whole, can their newfound, hard-won love keep them alive?