Since Esmera was abandoned on a stranger's doorstep as a baby, the only person who has looked out for her is herself. Until a lark starts visiting her, leaving behind exotic flowers and iridescent pebbles that the internet doesn't recognise. Esmera can't believe her eyes when she recognises the lark in a painting in a museum. Her investigation takes her to the home of the museum owner, Tauram - a man who is more than he seems. When a magical force summons Esmera and Tauram to Milatanur, the hidden kingdom that is their home, they have no choice but to answer the call. Soon, it is not their decades-long betrothal that binds them but feelings they must ignore for the sakes of their fractured pasts and precarious futures. Around them, nature rebels under the unjust rule of a cruel sorcerer, threatening to engulf Milatanur. The formidable King Ruagu has spies everywhere, and those who aren't on his side turn to it out of fear. Loyalty will rot into betrayal, blood will be paid, and Esmera will be presented with her destiny to wield a weapon of unparalleled power. But only if she can elude her dark past long enough. *** Cover by @-DeeIsDead-

[ONC 2021 Grand Winner] After the events of Ragnarök, the God Vidar has settled in the nice and quiet city of Antwerp where he keeps an eye on the local paranormal community. Nearly a millennium later, Vidar is a grumbling bookstore owner by day and a lazy paranormal detective by night (albeit a slightly furry one during a full moon). The morning after a particularly rough transition, the young teenage girl who normally wastes her days on the skatepark across the street enters his shop, fervently looking for a book on the legend of Brabo and Antigonus. As she struggles to pay, she reveals that the bronze giant has disappeared from the statue on the town square. At the foot of the fountain now lies a body that has been dead for three hundred years. Prompts chosen: (25) The war has ended, and thus the immortals return to their natural state: forgotten, hiding in the shadows until humankind is in need of them once more. They did not expect to be stumbled upon by a young farm apprentice. (*) (60) Rumours of a mysterious dark force under the earth have spread around the city. You are sent to investigate. (*) To fit the plot I have in mind, the young farm apprentice will become a bookstore "apprentice"

"Everything has a specific timing. This is yours to face the truth." Vasudha is finally back home after ten long years of studying in Mumbai. Only if she knew about the headless shadow who's been waiting for her to return. It has been watching her from afar, bidding it's time. With no one but her aunt believing her, she is in for an adventure of a lifetime. But what if she isn't ready for the truth?