Until the Roots Consume Us
By @john1208
The story opens with a heart-pounding chase through the rain-slicked canopy of Ilythra, where Zorien seemingly saves Lirren from syndicate hounds - the perfect heroic start to a two-year lie. Years ago, Zorien lost his leg in a collapsing ruin, watching Lirren flee into the dust while he bled. Now a sarcastic, world-weary syndicate fixer, he has perfected his revenge. Masking his bitterness behind a gentle, devoted smile, he played the perfect boyfriend, infiltrating her lonely life only to plant forged evidence of treason and hand her over to the Amber-Guard. His victory is meant to be sweet. Instead, the silence of her empty apartment is suffocating, and the bittersweet, unspoken love he tried to bury claws its way out. The agonizing emptiness shatters into sheer panic when his frantic sidekick, Pell, uncovers a horrifying detail: the Enforcers transferred Lirren to the Deep-Roots, a living penal-cavern scheduled for a toxic botanical purge in exactly twelve hours. It was a time limit nobody mentioned. Now, Zorien must tear down the very city he manipulated to break into an impenetrable prison. But even if he reaches her in time, can she ever forgive a man whose love was built on a lie?
2
The Catastrophic Miscalculation of Tallis Korvek
By @john1208
It begins on a deathbed, with Tallis Korvek’s father dramatically gasping out a final command: destroy the Vantari bloodline. World-weary and thoroughly sick of politics, Tallis opts for a lazy, long-con approach. He infiltrates the isolated, heavily burdened life of Nimira Vantari, posing as a sympathetic friend. Over a year of shared secrets, terrible tea, and midnight rants, Tallis ignores his growing feelings to spring his trap. At the Winter Gala, he invokes the ancient Rite of Ruin by announcing his marriage to Nimira's worst enemy, expecting Nimira to be banished in absolute disgrace. Except, Tallis didn't read the Rite's ancient syntax. Instead of destroying her, the spell legally transfers all of Nimira's family curses, assassination targets, and exhaustion directly onto him, while granting her total freedom. Nimira simply says "Thank you" and vanishes. Left in an agonizingly empty estate, shackled to a fiancé he loathes and a grumpy six-legged badger who aggressively misses Nimira, Tallis realizes he is hopelessly, desperately in love. Now he must burn down his own faction and scour the continent to find her, drop to his knees, and beg for the heart he just tried to break. Will he survive his own trap long enough to win her back?
1
The Alchemist's Gilded Snare
By @john1208
The eerie, fog-drenched streets of Ghest are plagued by Glass-Walkers - monstrous victims of a crystalline plague that shatters the mind and body. Amidst this atmospheric nightmare, proud and prickly scholar Vessera Hale receives a strange, unmarked delivery: a rare, preserved Glass-Walker heart, accompanied by an endless stream of overwhelming wealth and patronage from the enigmatic Korien Vast. To Vessera, Korien’s lavish attention and slow-burn seduction are a suspicious but necessary lifeline to fund her underground research. To Korien, it is a meticulously crafted snare. Blaming Vessera for stealing his life-saving Crimson-Pulse Serum years ago, he has returned to orchestrate her utter ruin. When Korien’s trap finally springs, he hands her over to the corrupt city Wardens with perfectly forged evidence. But his hollow victory turns to ashes when the truth emerges: the two mysteries are one. The stolen serum didn't save lives; it mutated the Glass-Walkers. Vessera hadn't stolen his work to profit, but to hide the horrific weapon from the very authorities Korien just handed her to, taking the blame to spare him from execution. As an assassin's blade meant for Vessera strikes, Korien takes the lethal blow without hesitation. Can he possibly survive to grovel for the forgiveness of the woman he destroyed?
1