Silver and Red

All Saeris remembers of her childhood is red.
Red soaking through her hands.
Red staining her dreams.
Red that feels more familiar than any face she can no longer recall.

Raised within Aritasa's brutal military academy, Saeris has spent her life sharpening herself into the kingdom's perfect soldier. Her silver-augmented magic makes her faster, stronger, and deadlier than any cadet her age-but power alone isn't enough. Not when the instructors seem determined to hold her back. Not when a kingdom on the brink of war refuses to use its strongest weapon.

When rising tensions along the northern border force the Academy to select a squad of elite cadets for a high-stakes recon mission, Saeris expects to lead it. Instead, she's benched-while the sheltered, untested crown prince is sent in her place.

Determined to prove herself, Saeris disobeys orders and joins the mission on her own terms. But the farther the squad travels beyond Aritasa's borders, the more the world fails to match what she was taught. Other kingdoms whisper stories Aritasa denies. Their histories don't align. Their warnings feel too specific. Their fear feels too personal.

And as Saeris is confronted with foreign truths and buried horrors, the cracks in her fractured memory begin to split wide open.

There are things she wasn't meant to remember.
Histories she wasn't meant to hear.
And a past she was never meant to survive.
When lies rot the foundation of a kingdom, the truth becomes lethal.
And Saeris has always been very, very good at killing.