Versetide

Rin was never meant to be more than a number. An ink-stained orphan indentured to a crumbling ledgerhouse in the marsh-bound city of Drownpost, she spends her days copying shipping manifests and her nights enduring the quiet rot of forgotten lives. But everything changes when she uncovers a strange, sea-damaged scroll, one that holds the first stirrings of a newly awakened verse, quiet yet powerful, and impossible to ignore.

In the Kingdom of Velratha, songs are more than superstition. Long ago, the Sea sang its will into existence, scattering verses of living magic across the islands. Now, the Crown hunts those shanties, chains the relics they awaken, and silences those who dare to listen. But the Shanty of Unmaking, the last and most dangerous of them all, is beginning to surface.

Chased by inquisitors, marked by a burning desire for revenge, and pulled into a crew of fugitives, smugglers, and threadbare rebels, Rin must decide what kind of story she's willing to carve into the tides: one of survival... or defiance.

Because the tide is shifting.
And the verses remember.