The Scion's Shadow
By @john1208
The rain fell hard at the funeral of Vesna Dalca’s only friend, but all she wanted was to go home and sleep. Six years ago, her jealous step-sister drugged her at a gala, resulting in a hazy one-night stand with ruthless industrialist Korvan Vance. Now a disgraced outcast, the lethargic genius lives quietly in the slums with her scrap-metal mastiff, Slag, and her greatest secret: her son, Ilya. Vesna's low-effort survival shatters when the six-year-old engineering prodigy earns a mandatory placement at the Orosz Institute - a brutalist academy funded by Korvan himself. A suffocating game of cat-and-mouse begins. Vesna agonizes over constant near-misses as the oligarch stalks the campus, inches away from recognizing the boy with his exact steel-grey eyes. The tension explodes when Ilya bypasses the highest security tier on Korvan’s broken armored transport and repairs its core. Realizing he has an heir, Korvan's indifference morphs into terrifying, obsessive protection. He blackmails Vesna into moving into his heavily fortified estate, holding her hostage to keep the boy safe. But in a dark, cold war devoid of romance, Vesna discovers her most trusted medical confidant has been manipulating them all along. Can she shake her apathy in time to save her son from a deadly conspiracy?
5
The Desolate Inn's Divine Menu
By @john1208
Tazeen Dastur was supposed to be the heir to the most legendary culinary dynasty in the realm of Parshangan. Instead, her spiritual root is deemed defective, and she is publicly stripped of her birthright and thrown into the mud outside the Grand Azure Pavilion while the elites laugh. Exiled to the crumbling Omid Caravanserai at the edge of the world, the shy but stubbornly resilient chef decides to simply cook her grief away. Her melancholic, soul-warming dishes are a stark contrast to the sterile, pill-based diets of the modern cultivation era. Soon, immortal patriarchs and Envoy Vesh-Tek - a haughty outworlder diplomat who views humanity as uncultured apes - are rolling in the dirt, pulling hair and throwing spiritual techniques at each other just to claim the last serving of her spiced lamb stew. But as the inn flourishes under the guidance of a seemingly kindly wanderer, Elder Zulfiqar, Tazeen realizes her magical ancestral recipe book is not a blessing. Every bowl served feeds an ancient, sealed entity. Can a timid chef defy her own bloodline and save her most annoying customers before the final course is served?
2