Lovers
By @Bernice Chenwi
In the neon-drenched metropolis of Veridia, love is not a feeling - it is a measurable currency regulated by the ruthless Ministry of Affection. Julian, a disgraced sensory-weaver who can manipulate emotional frequencies, lives in the shadows, nursing the memories of his betrayed past. When he is blackmailed into crafting a counterfeit bond for Clara, the high-society heiress to the Ministry's fortune, he expects a routine heist of the heart. Instead, their manufactured spark ignites a genuine, volatile connection that threatens to destabilize the city's entire emotional economy. As Julian’s forbidden feelings for Clara deepen, he must wield his illegal sensory-weaving to protect her from her own family. With the Ministry closing in and their fake bond fraying under the weight of real trauma, Julian is forced to decide: will he play his part in their grand deception, or will he destroy the very system that keeps them alive just to feel something real?
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