The Resonance of Ruin
By @john1208
At her cousin’s lavish engagement party, Zivena Rostova is a ghost. Once a brilliant prodigy of House Rostova, she is now a pariah, her name and future destroyed by a vicious scandal her family engineered. Forced into servitude, she endures their cruelty with unnerving calm, her only companion a spectral, moth-like creature that whispers forgotten truths. Her tormentors see a broken woman, but they don't know the truth: the scandal was a sacrifice, the first move in a cold, intricate game Zivena set in motion long ago. When she secures a position as an archivist for the enigmatic Lord Ksaver Molnar, a master of the city's Resonance technology, he witnesses the Rostova family's casual cruelty firsthand. Intrigued by her resilience and chilling intellect, he offers her his patronage, unknowingly providing the final piece she needs to spring her trap. Now, armed with resources and a forgotten power, Zivena must walk a razor's edge to orchestrate her family’s spectacular downfall. But can she reclaim her name without being consumed by the vengeful echo of the girl she chose to sacrifice?
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The Silence of the Last Heirloom
By @john1208
Iviya has only ever known the grit of the city's underbelly, her heart as cold as the cobblestones. Her only warmth, her friend Lyeni, is dead. At Lyeni's pauper's funeral, Iviya is discovered by nobles who proclaim her to be the long-lost Duchess Annelise Valerievna, sole heir to a powerful and strategic domain. Thrust into the opulent, suffocating world of the Izvorian Court, Iviya is surrounded by three suitors, all scholars of the royal archives, all vying for the hand of the 'Duchess' to secure her political power. These gentle, intelligent men offer her a world of comfort she never dreamed of, yet she sees the glint of calculation behind their spectacles. With her soot-furred ferret, Tikho, as her only confidant, Iviya plays the part of the fragile, returned noble. But her goal is not love or power - it is to find the truth behind the real Annelise's disappearance and to avenge the friend whose life was forfeit for a dangerous secret. Can she unmask the court's gilded lies before the trap of her false identity snaps shut forever?
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