The Artificer's Petty Wedding Gift

By @john1208

Sprinting across the terracotta rooftops of Oraz while dodging lethal brass-hounds wasn't how Zibiah Tariq planned her homecoming. Finally escaping a five-year exile orchestrated by the manipulative Vahdat family, she expects a dramatic reunion with her fiancé, Rostam. Instead, she finds him cuddling Shirin, a weeping lookalike who faints at the sight of engine grease. When Rostam sighs, 'You were gone too long, I needed someone,' Zibiah doesn't cry. She laughs, sends them a magical wedding urn that loudly critiques their home decor every midnight, and immediately opens a rival workshop. While Rostam slowly loses his mind realizing he traded a diamond for a remarkably useless pebble, Zibiah focuses on building a legendary flying galleon alongside Qasim, an infuriatingly handsome rival artificer. But as her glorious career skyrockets, Zibiah uncovers a terrifying truth. Her fiercely loyal best friend Farzin, the man funding her comeback, is the true mastermind who originally sold her out to the Vahdats. He engineered her ruin to keep her dependent on him. Hunted by the one ally who knows all her weaknesses, can Zibiah outsmart her traitorous shadow before he destroys her masterpiece?