A Crown of Rot and Light

In the cold, unforgiving Vale of Shattered Vows, mortal existence is mined to fuel immortal perfection. The High Fae of Aether's Fall maintain their eternal youth and power by harvesting human memories through the Light-Spire, leaving a trail of hollowed-out lives in their wake.
Vespera is a Remnant Hunter who wields a volatile decay-magic, the only power capable of neutralizing Fae spells. Her strength comes at a devastating cost because every spark of decay requires the permanent sacrifice of her own personal memories. Armed with a pitted steel blade and a rapidly vanishing past, she hunts the memory-monsters birthed by the empire's waste.

Everything changes when Vespera pulls a broad-shouldered stranger from the wreckage of a cognitive catastrophe. He carries no memories of his identity, but he bears a terrifying marker: a thorned crown of silver forged directly into his brow that bleeds liquid gold. Calling himself Nocturne, he is a walking power source bound directly to the High King's engine, a living key anchored to the capital's siphon.
Pursued across dead marshes, black-market canyons, and golden forests by the High King's relentless Inquisitors, Vespera and Nocturne forge a desperate alliance. To break the crown before its magical tether pulls Nocturne back into captivity, they must infiltrate the heavily guarded Light-Spire Vaults beneath the capital.

As Vespera burns away the precious remaining fragments of her identity to keep them alive, a raw, undeniable devotion ignites between the hunter and the forgotten prince. Facing an empire built on stolen souls, they must risk everything to break the siphon before the dark magic consumes Vespera entirely.