The Flayed Mastiff's Shroud
By @john1208
The Qarlik Spires are protected by the Zhal-Mastiffs, giant hounds that guide freezing souls to the afterlife. But when Patriarch Oghul slaughters and skins the eldest hound to fashion a coat of peerless warmth, a horrific curse descends upon the Yashgar Cliff-Manor. Oghul's bloodline is afflicted by the 'Hollow Frost' - an unnatural, agonizing hypothermia that turns their living flesh to black ice, driving the guilty to violently flay the servants just to steal their warmth.
Nimka, the Patriarch's quiet and intensely stubborn daughter, desperately investigates the manor's forbidden archives to break the curse. Under the guise of a timid girl trying to save her family, she exhibits a cold, calculating brilliance, subtly isolating her cruel relatives so they face the hound's wrath one by one. But as Nimka pieces together the esoteric ritual binding the flayed beast, a terrifying revelation surfaces. She is not just an innocent descendant trying to survive; she is the reincarnation of the hound's original, murdered master. Will Nimka complete the icy extermination she engineered lifetimes ago, or will the flayed beast turn its insatiable hunger upon her?
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