The Rust Queen's Quiet Feast

Queen Morwena reigns over Zhal, a kingdom slowly succumbing to the 'Creeping Hush' - a blight that leeches color and sound, leaving behind a silent, rust-colored decay. Forged in a court of silent knives and loveless ambition, Morwena's heart is as barren as her land. Her only focus is finding a cure, a quest that has left a trail of failed alchemists in her dungeons. Now, her guards have captured Kian, a frustratingly serene camp cook who claims the blight is not a curse to be broken, but a hunger to be sated. He offers a pact: he will cook for her, and only her, using forgotten ingredients to coax life back into the land. Wary but desperate, Morwena agrees, only to find his quiet attention and uncanny memory of her smallest preferences a more potent threat to her control than any assassin. But as patches of green return to Zhal, the source of Kian's knowledge becomes a terrifying question. What is the true price of this quiet feast, and is the man defrosting her heart also nourishing the monster that wants to consume her whole?