A Romantasy NovellaSix months after a Wellspring and an enemy commander vanished from a Vigil holding cell, the war between Vellmoor and Nyx Hallow has run out of soldiers before it's run out of hatred - which is the only reason either Crown agrees to sit at the same table at all. Warden Ophira Vire didn't survive the Concord's bureaucracy for twenty years by believing in peace. She believes in leverage, and she's been sent to the armistice talks to secure exactly enough of it to end the war on Vellmoor's terms.
What she doesn't expect is her opposite number from Nyx Hallow: a negotiator who reads her like a ledger, concedes nothing, and somehow makes losing an argument feel like the most interesting thing that's happened to her in a decade. Every clause they draft is a small, private war. Every night the talks run late is a larger one. And when it becomes clear that someone on one side - maybe both - would rather the peace fail than see it signed, Vire has to decide what she's actually protecting: her Crown's advantage, or the one person who's ever negotiated for her instead of around her.
Some vows are written into treaties. Others just get made.
A Romantasy NovellaSix months after a Wellspring and an enemy commander vanished from a Vigil holding cell, the war between Vellmoor and Nyx Hallow has run out of soldiers before it's run out of hatred - which is the only reason either Crown agrees to sit at the same table at all. Warden Ophira Vire didn't survive the Concord's bureaucracy for twenty years by believing in peace. She believes in leverage, and she's been sent to the armistice talks to secure exactly enough of it to end the war on Vellmoor's terms.
What she doesn't expect is her opposite number from Nyx Hallow: a negotiator who reads her like a ledger, concedes nothing, and somehow makes losing an argument feel like the most interesting thing that's happened to her in a decade. Every clause they draft is a small, private war. Every night the talks run late is a larger one. And when it becomes clear that someone on one side - maybe both - would rather the peace fail than see it signed, Vire has to decide what she's actually protecting: her Crown's advantage, or the one person who's ever negotiated for her instead of around her.
Some vows are written into treaties. Others just get made.