Soul Tithes

In the realm of Myca, the famine doesn't just starve the land - it feeds the State.
Sol is the Taxman. The Collector of Coin and Consequence. He rides into dying villages on a Nocthound and burns mercy contracts with violet flame. He doesn't negotiate. He doesn't hesitate. He doesn't lose.
He is also running out of time.
With a hidden wound counting down to something he won't name, and a conspiracy threading through the Mansion district's black-market corridors, Sol's next collection may be the last thing he ever files. Between Faunite soldiers blocking the road, a crime lord who trades in silence, and a woman last seen with a nobleman who can't afford to be found, Sol is beginning to suspect the real debt isn't in the ledger.
In Myca, power is collected. Silence is currency. And some taxes are paid in blood.
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A dark high fantasy political thriller about a morally gray enforcer who upholds the law - until the law becomes the crime.
For readers of grimdark, hard magic systems, political intrigue, and antiheroes who earn every scar.
Book 1 of the Art of Creation series.
Tags: dark fantasy · grimdark · morally grey · magic system · antihero · political thriller · noir · worldbuilding