The Forged Path. Five Husbands, #2

In the high, isolated mountain valleys of the west, where tradition is as unyielding as the granite peaks, a woman's life is not her own. It is a pattern set by her ancestors, a thread of duty woven into a tapestry of honour and inheritance. For Anya, a quiet girl with hands skilled at the loom, this destiny takes the form of a polyandrous marriage to five brothers, a union designed to preserve a small parcel of land by sacrificing her individuality.
In a house ruled by the cold authority of the eldest brother, Rinchen, and the simmering violence of the second, Lobsang, her spirit is methodically crushed. Her only act of defiance is a secret language of thread-a tight knot of anger, a tangled weave of despair, and a single, hidden scarlet strand of hope. Facing a future of unending, silent servitude, she makes a choice: a quick death in the unforgiving wilderness is preferable to a slow one in her own home.
She flees. Miraculously surviving her escape, she finds her way to the magnificent, sprawling city of Shar, a universe away from her mountain confines. Reborn as Dara, her duties no longer define her, but by her fear. She lives as a ghost, until a chance encounter brings her into the orbit of a new family: Lena and David, worldly academics who introduce her to the radical concepts of history, philosophy, and self-worth; and Kael, a gentle scholar who sees the powerful, untold story in her weavings.
Together, they help her transform her craft from a private solace into a public voice. Her tapestries, infused with the pain of her past and the hope of her new life, begin to captivate the city. Her raw, unique talent catches the eye of Shar's most powerful patron, Lady Nasrin, who envisions a grand exhibition that will elevate Dara from a humble weaver to a celebrated artist. But this new, public profile, designed to be a fortress, also acts as a beacon.
Back in the mountains, her five husbands, doubly humiliated by her escape and the discovery that they were deceived about her death, find their shame twisted into a righteous fury. Sanctioned by their village elders to restore their sacred traditions, they embark on a vengeful crusade to the city. Their journey is a brutal march, their encounters with the broader world only serving to harden their conviction that their violent, simplistic worldview is the only true and honourable one.
At the height of Dara's triumph, on the opening night of her exhibition, these two worlds collide with explosive force. In a stunning public confrontation, Dara must face the men who came to drag her back in chains. But instead of cowering, she seizes the stage. Armed with the new language she has learned and the support of her powerful allies, she delivers a devastating testimony, dissecting the cruel machinery of the tradition that spawned her and claiming her own identity with a voice that refuses to be silenced.
This is the story of a woman's journey from property to person, from a fugitive to a force of nature, and the battle that will determine not only her future, but the fate of the world she left behind.