THE WORDS WE BURN || ONC 2025

A soldier being eaten alive by the curse that ravages at the front.
A writer who serves as the perfect mouthpiece for the cause of war.
A hundred truths silenced.

Cyrice Marzanne, a bright young journalist and war correspondent, prizes the word as her strongest weapon against enemies, and to wield it, she risked her life amidst battle more than once. That is, until Kristan Vrost, a battered veteran, arrives at her doorstep at midnight and presents her with a story about a weapon turning the bodies and minds of soldiers to rot that cannot possibly be true. Of all people, he wants her to spread the news of this disease.

Only that Cyrice's typewriter won't allow them to be written, and starts to raise questions about what else is being silenced. Could all the lies in the books banned and burned for decades have been no lies at all? Starting a dangerous pursuit to find the truth, Cyrice has to ask herself how much power her words hold if they are not fully her own.

For fans of Violet Evergarden, Divine Rivals, Adrian Tchaikovsky, and Studio Ghibli's Holw's Moving Castle

an onc entry following prompts 31, 95, and 65

Cover by Chaoskuss