The Gloaming Snare
By @john1208
Ilypha’s ordinary morning began with a shattered tea-glass and a chilling knock on her door. Ruined by her treacherous ex-fiancé Jorlan and desperate to build a sanctuary for the street orphans of Tarnstead, the shy but stubbornly idealistic Ilypha accepts a rushed arranged marriage orchestrated by a scheming elder. Due to a deception in the paperwork, she marries a man using a fake name - Rhyzan, who claims to be a simple, penniless ink-maker. He is quiet, intensely doting, and seems content to watch her build her dream. What Ilypha doesn't know is that Rhyzan is secretly the Lord of Varnoth, the phantom billionaire secretly funding her non-profit from the shadows. As Jorlan cruelly flaunts his new wealthy fiancée - blissfully unaware she is merely the lowest-ranking clerk in Rhyzan’s sprawling empire - Ilypha's orphanage begins to flourish beyond her wildest dreams. Money pours in, rival factions vanish in the mist, and Rhyzan is always there with a warm cup of tea and a tender, lingering gaze. But as the walls of her grand new sanctuary rise higher, isolating her in a remote wing of his misty estate, a terrifying realization dawns. Is her perfect husband building her a heaven, or a beautifully inescapable cage?
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A Crown of Glass and Spite
By @john1208
An ordinary Tuesday morning goes up in flames when Maeva's espresso machine explodes over her final blueprints, forcing her to rush out covered in stains to meet the high-end gigolo she hired. Desperate to humiliate her treacherous ex, Garrick, she drags the impossibly handsome stranger into an impulsive chapel wedding so she can crash Garrick's engagement party as a happily married woman. But her doting, seemingly broke husband isn't a gigolo. He is Crown Prince Soren of the ultra-wealthy micro-nation of Altara, who was simply dodging his royal handlers at a corner cafe. While Maeva coldly dismantles Garrick's career and pours her soul into a blind bid for a mysterious royal palace, Soren is quietly paving her way from the shadows. He watches with immense satisfaction as Garrick parades his new "billionaire heiress" fiancée - who is actually Soren’s lowest-ranking palace archivist. The two plot lines converge beautifully as the blind bid concludes. But as Maeva prepares to present her magnum opus, what will she do when she realizes the royal client she is pitching to is the same man currently fixing her thrift-store sink?
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