The Heretic's Lament

Ivana Raskova is an abomination, a blasphemous union of light and shadow, and she has spent twenty years hiding it. But when the Luminant Creed murders her parents and brands her a heretic, hiding is no longer an option. At their funeral, with her younger brother's life in the balance, she is forced to flee with Gavril Surovic - a calculating agent from a rival state who sees her not as a person, but as a weapon to dismantle the Creed's power. Their only hope lies in finding the lost Regalia of the Sundered God, artifacts of immense power. For Ivana, they are the tools of a cold, meticulous revenge. For Gavril, they are a means to a political end. As they race the Creed's fanatical hunters across a war-torn continent, the unspoken bond between them deepens into a dangerous, bittersweet affection. But the Regalia holds a terrible secret, and the revenge Ivana seeks is intertwined with a prophecy far darker than the Creed's scriptures. Is she truly reclaiming her power, or is she just a pawn in a dead god's final, world-ending gambit?