Scars that shimmer

In the sun-drenched land of Cresilis, power is not a gift-it is carved.

Sylphira lives on the jagged edge of poverty, her body marked with the white, blood-scarred tattoos of an earth-magic wielder. To the wealthy elite of the Inner City, she is a tool for healing and a convenient secret. To the man she thought she loved, she is a source of shame, a girl to be hidden away in the humid outskirts while he climbs the social ladder of the Council.

But Sylphira is finished with secrets.

Driven by a rage that outweighs her fear, she flees deep into the forbidden forest, reaching the ancient, shimmering Barrier that has separated her world from the unknown for centuries. There, she encounters the impossible: a fae stranger with skin marked by obsidian-black ink and eyes that hold a raw, innate magic her people have forgotten.

Separated by a wall of war-torn history and a silence she cannot break with words, Sylphira finds herself at the mercy of a choice she never expected. The Barrier is not an ending, but a doorway. When the stranger reaches through the shimmer to pull her into his world, Sylphira must learn to navigate an unknown world, where her language means nothing, and her magic is foreign.