Sylas Croft

In the kingdom of Valdris, power has a price - and the Obsidian Throne never forgets a debt. From the ash-choked valleys where prophets speak to the dead, to the drowned shores where memory dissolves like salt in water, to the dying frontier towns where the last smiths forge blades from the throne's own glass - these twelve tales map the boundaries where kingdoms end and something older begins. A cartographer follows an impossible map into a valley that should not exist.
A stonemason discovers his statues weeping human tears. A king's taster learns that the throne is consuming the kingdom one meal at a time. A minstrel bargains with the deep for a voice that can heal the plague - and learns that every song has a hidden refrain. In the ShadowForge world, magic has teeth, memory is currency, and no door opens without taking something in return. These are stories for readers who want their fantasy atmospheric, morally complex, and unafraid of the dark.
Welcome to the edges of the map. The kingdoms end here. The old world begins.