The Hourglass Requiem

Zita Vaitkus was a genius content with mediocrity. As a chronomancer at the prestigious Veidota Institute, she preferred quiet study and long naps to the cutthroat politics her younger siblings thrived on - until a brutal conspiracy orchestrated by the Silent Coterie left them dead and her shattered. Thrown back five years by a desperate, dying spell, Zita awakens with one goal: dismantle the Coterie with the absolute minimum effort. But her lazy approach to altering fate has unforeseen, bloody consequences. Every life she spares is replaced by another unexpected death, a cruel cosmic balance she can't escape. Her unnerving foresight and unconventional methods attract the attention of the institute's reclusive and dangerously perceptive Grand Mage, Kostas Balodis, the very man whose neutrality sealed her family's doom. Now, Zita must outmaneuver a conspiracy, a rival mage, and fate itself. But what if the power that gave her this second chance is a trap, and the ultimate price for saving her family is her own soul?