The Cartography of Dust
By @john1208
Velis Dantari is a cold, methodical investigative author whose latest project - a book on a vanished desert civilization - is hopelessly stalled. When an anonymous courier delivers an incomplete topographical map of the treacherous Serekh Wastes, Velis abandons her sterile city life for a grueling off-road expedition. There, she encounters Joros, a gruff, fiercely protective mobile doctor wandering the dunes to treat isolated nomads and hunt a phantom pathogen. Despite having zero romantic interest in one another, their shared isolation breeds an intoxicating, slow-burn emotional intimacy. They navigate sandstorms, share quiet confessions over engine blocks, and dissect the desert's secrets as profound platonic soulmates. But when the trip ends, they abruptly part ways. Months later, back in the sprawling metropolis, Velis assumes control of a massive historical foundation to finalize her research - only to find Joros sitting in her office as her newly hired lead archivist. As they resume their intense partnership, a terrifying twist emerges: the ancient historical disappearance Velis is writing about, and the modern medical plague Joros is tracking, are the exact same event. Will uncovering the truth cure their inner demons, or awaken a dormant catastrophe?
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The Cinnabar Echo
By @john1208
In her first life, Vlasta Kopřiva was a brilliant but reckless apothecary who watched her younger sister, Milena, succumb to the Whispering Blight, a slow-acting poison with no known cure. Crushed by guilt and eventually framed for treason, Vlasta died with a single wish: to save her sister. Now, she's awake in her own body ten years prior, the day Milena was first afflicted. With the knowledge of the future, she is determined to unmask the poisoner and synthesize the antidote she discovered too late. Her shameless methods and uncanny foresight, however, draw the unwanted attention of Duke Vojtěch Hrubý, the cold and calculating man whose investigation sealed her fate. As she forges a dangerous alliance with him, she realizes she isn't the only one reliving the past. Another regressor with a hidden agenda seems determined to ensure history repeats itself, twisting her every success into a new catastrophe. Can Vlasta save Milena when her second chance might be a rigged game designed by someone else entirely?
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