HEARTWIRED EMPIRE

In the war-torn empire of Caelvaria, where silence is safer than truth, Vic Soreño doesn't care for safety.
A proud lesbian and a self-made legend, Vic rose from the ruins of a forgotten province. By night, she's the fearless commander of Unit Aether, a rogue combat-and-hacker platoon made of outcasts. By day, she dons a mask and becomes VIX, the subversive music genius whose underground compositions fuel rebellion and hope. She's smart, skilled, loud, and unashamed. Love, for her, is for women-and she's never once apologized for it.
Enter Lyra Caelestis, a noble-born healer raised far from royalty. Her parents were exiled by the court for loving outside their noble obligations. Disgusted by the aristocracy's games, Lyra became a trauma surgeon on the frontlines, saving lives rather than playing politics. She hides her heritage but never her compassion.
When Vic is badly wounded during an ambush, she ends up in Lyra's mobile clinic. Sparks fly fast-Vic is all swagger and scars, Lyra is steel beneath silk. They challenge each other, push each other. Vic jokes; Lyra doesn't laugh-at first. But music shared between wounds, and guarded smiles whispered in the dark, begin to change everything.
Then the unthinkable: the empire's throne is left power-vacant, and the court calls Lyra home as the rightful heir, the last of the Caelestis line. The same nobles who condemned her parents now need her to stop a civil collapse.
Lyra is torn. Vic is furious. And love, once a spark in hiding, is now a fire surrounded by war, betrayal, and dangerous choices.
Together, they must decide: will they serve the empire that broke them, or destroy it to build something new?
Vic's Character Highlights:
• Proudly lesbian and open about it
• Confident, sarcastic, brilliant in combat and hacking
• Uses music as both rebellion and therapy
• Disillusioned with love until she meets Lyra
• Protective but never possessive
• Doesn't hide, even when the world tells her to