[AMBYS WINNER 2024] Mutilated, dejected and stained by the blood of his loved ones, Lucius Cromwell, a precocious and naïve child of high society, strikes a deal with an unhallowed Scourge of 'The Waste' in order to get his life back, blissfully ignorant that he'll consequently find his humanity on the line. *** A disturbing voice has been tormenting Lucius' mind for the longest time. Disregarding its sinister way of suggesting revenge on people who hurt him as mere thoughts he goes about his day, doing his best to live up to his superficial parents' standards and following the ideals of his Archon of worship. Life is lacklustre, but hardly worth causing a scene over. When a life altering event renders Lucius struggling not to die on the streets however things turn grim very fast, and in an act of desperation Lucius casts his beliefs aside, promising his soul to be devoured by The Waste at the time of his death with the promise of power in return. It doesn't take long for Lucius to realize that even the smallest of favors promised to him come with a catch, and being forced to do the Scourge of The Waste's wicked bidding while watching loved one after loved one disappear from his life Lucius has to wonder if a lifetime of power was really worth an eternity of suffering. This is the first installment of the "The Meaning Of Eternity" series. [Word count: 108 000]

When second year Carthwright University student Olyss Glass is assigned Emory Ghosh as her roommate for the year, she thinks she couldn't possibly have worse luck. Emory is intimidating - as the lead intern at CarthTech, she's heading up a top secret initiative known to the rest of the world as The Gloaming Project, and on top of that, she's the smartest person Olyss has ever met. In an attempt to find some common ground, Olyss convinces Emory to re-open Emory's old amateur detective agency together, but neither of them could have anticipated that a series of seemingly unrelated cases link back to a conspiracy that could threaten the world's freedom of thought. And there's definitely no way they could have known that the conspiracy is Emory's fault.