THIS STORY HAS BEEN DISCONTINUED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. All rights reserved. Decades ago, the sun melted the sky. Floods wiped out billions, species died off, half the population was homeless. World leaders couldn't keep up; governments couldn't afford to house, feed, heal, and employ everyone, and there wasn't enough room to stand. Each city solved and prevented overpopulation in a different way. The Kaisar government, which reigns over my home in Alkannine, holds strict birthing laws to keep each family with only one offspring and established Keres. Twice a month, you are assigned a location and time to showcase your skill improvement by fighting and "killing" a simulant. If you don't impress the Plights-judges of your capability-you are taken to the Tribulation Trials. I don't know for sure what happens after that, but I always notice the newly engraved monolith. * Acacia Evins is an audacious combatant in the city of Alkannine, where family is almost as dangerous as the simulants---synthetic intelligence designed to look and act as human to train civilians for war. Acacia wants nothing more than to protect her younger sister Livia from a government that has named more than one child of the same family extralegal, but in a nation actively striving to recover from overpopulation, Acacia finds herself in a world of cognitive dissonance when she meets pacifist Aviel Kollande, who holds compromising information about Alkannine's secrets. As Acacia and Aviel work together to uncover their city's patchwork of deceit, she comes to believe in the power of common blood and struggles to decide how much she is willing to sacrifice to keep what is left of her family intact. The cover art was commissioned by an incredible artist named Sebastian. You can find her on Instagram under the name 'brgrface'. She is truly amazing; please stop by her account if you get the chance. All rights reserved. Ongoing.