Fever and the False Blade
By @john1208
Told in alternating third-person perspectives, the story opens at a lavish clan engagement. Citra was supposed to hide in the background while her twin brother, Cakra, sealed a political marriage. Instead, she finds him assassinated. To uncover the culprit among the rival clans, the painfully shy but hopelessly stubborn Citra binds her chest, dons his ceremonial armor, and takes his place. Drafted into the Rimau-Baja Vanguard, her sole focus is a fast, action-packed hunt for a killer. Her desperate, cornered-animal fighting style catches the eye of Rimba, the Vanguard's undisputed prodigy. As they spend grueling nights practicing close-quarters grappling and the synchronized ceremonial dagger-dance, Rimba finds his heart hammering out of control. Convinced he is suffering from a terminal corruption of his 'yang energy', Rimba secretly haunts the camp's medical shamans for herbal cures to his forbidden attraction. Meanwhile, Citra has entirely misunderstood the academy's rules; she missed the orientation and firmly believes the Vanguard is a death-cult where losers are executed, fighting every sparring match as if her life depends on it. What happens when a deadly monsoon fever forces Citra into the medical tent, leaving her identity completely exposed to the one man who might just kill for her?
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