The Pious And The Pretender

To save her dying parents from the grey rot in the slums of Oldtown, Alys cuts her hair, binds her chest, and steals her late brother's armor. To the Green vanguard marching north, she is Allyn-a quiet, fierce young pikeman bleeding for every copper coin.But from the moment they meet, Ser Gwayne Hightower is entirely undone.As a son of the High Tower and a devout follower of the Seven-Pointed Faith, Gwayne's life is anchored in absolute purity. Yet, he is struck by a terrifying, deeply intimate fixation on his newest male recruit. Horrified by what he believes is an unholy, unnatural sin, Gwayne tries to break his own desires through ruthless military brutality, driving a bitter wedge of resentment between them.Everything shatters on the blood-soaked fields of Rook's Rest.Wounded in the vanguard, Alys is forced to unwrap her bindings in the dim light of a medical tent, only for Gwayne to walk through the flap. Caught between a massive wave of protective relief and the crushing weight of his family's severe religious judgment, the explosive tension between commander and soldier finally snaps. But when the fog of war clears, Gwayne's internal rejection turns ice-cold-and Alys refuses to be treated as a dirty little secret.Amidst a brutal civil war of dragons and ashes, can a knight of the Faith survive the fire he sparked in the dark?