The Dream-Blight Pact
By @john1208
Valdas Morvath is a man of quiet, terrifying resolve. After watching his predecessor succumb to the wasting Dream-Blight on his deathbed, Valdas vowed to eradicate the underworld syndicate responsible. His only lead took him to a mist-shrouded inn, where a hotel room mix-up in the dark led to a feverish night in the arms of a nameless woman. She vanished by dawn, leaving behind a highly illegal blood-contract. Now, Valdas is tearing the city apart to find her, convinced she is the key to the syndicate. By day, he seeks treatment for his own worsening insomnia from Dr. Ovidia Neth, a brilliant, aloof somnologist at the city's most elite clinic. Their sessions are tense, intimate, and steeped in a dangerous psychological game. Valdas has no idea the woman dissecting his nightmares is the fugitive he hunts. The slow-burn tension peaks as his hunt for the syndicate merges flawlessly with the search for his runaway lover - they are the exact same mystery. What will he do when he catches his trusted doctor sneaking into his study to return the very contract she 'lost' that night?
5
I Paid the Arch-Magus in Copper
By @john1208
Opening with a frantic midnight chase through the neon-lit alleys of Olen-Bosh, Zeska Vender is running for her life. A cold, calculating magical theorist, Zeska approached her desire to blow off steam like a math problem: hire a professional, pay in cheap copper, and leave. But her calculations missed one catastrophic variable - she hadn't entered the escort's room, but the VIP lounge of Morvan Teth, the city's terrifying Arch-Magus. Now, he is turning the city upside down to find the 'brazen succubus' who treated him like a discount gigolo, guided only by a tutoring contract she accidentally dropped. Zeska's flawless survival plan? Maintain her disguise as the impossibly drab, quiet new tutor for Morvan's little sister. Told in close third-person, the laugh-out-loud comedy peaks daily as Morvan paces the study, angrily venting to the 'mousy tutor' about his obsessive hunt, while Zeska nods sympathetically, her six-legged pet fox chewing on his boots. Despite the farce, a bittersweet, unspoken love blossoms between them. But when a sudden medical emergency forces Zeska to use her highly unique healing magic in front of him, will the Arch-Magus realize the truth?
3