Lark Witwillow has already killed one Dreadlord. She’d rather not make a habit of it.
It was supposed to be a sleeping potion.
Instead, Dreadlord Daltharion is dead, Lark is running for her life, and there’s a baby dragon depending on her for reasons she can no longer remember.
By the time Lark reaches Kindlebrook, she has taken drastic measures to make sure no one can follow her. Unfortunately, those measures worked a little too well. She wakes at the threshold of a hidden village with no memory of who she is, where she came from, or why the dragon curled against her seems to trust her completely.
Kindlebrook has spent centuries sheltering people and creatures the rest of the world would rather possess, exploit, or destroy. It may be the perfect place for Lark to disappear—and perhaps even build a life.
Except someone is still looking for her.
And when a former dragon slayer arrives in town suffering from a decidedly draconic problem, Lark’s missing past begins catching up with the life she’s only just begun to make.
Because Daltharion spent decades trying to force magic to give him what it freely gives others.
He died before he could finish.
Someone intends to make sure that doesn’t stop him.
Magic in Emberlinth:
What it is:
Magic is asked, not taken. An Answer belongs to the thing answering, and when magic answers, something can Become. An herb may yield what it has to give. A place may open its doors. A dragon may answer in ways no human can. The form of the Answer depends upon the nature of what was asked.
What it isn’t:
Magic isn’t inherited, academic, or something you can command through sufficient power or study. Knowledge can teach you what to ask and how to recognize an Answer. It cannot guarantee one.
The oldest practitioners understood one thing particularly well:
You may ask. The Answer is not yours to command.
The Threadbound live by one truth:
You don’t command magic. You earn it—sometimes with care, sometimes with grief, always with choice.
A note on terminology: A Potion Maker’s Guide to Playing Dead is currently in development. Some names and terms used here are working language and may change as the world of Emberaya continues to take shape.