Blue_the_Bard
🥇 1st Place - Best Prologue (Whispers Beneath the Ice mini-awards, 2025)
🥇 1st Place - Fantasy (Four-Leaved Clover Awards, 2025)
🥈 2nd Place - Best Writing Style (Enchanted Grave Awards, 2025)
⸻ ✧ ⸻
The sun is gone. Its light is sold.
Beneath the earth, humanity survives on Lumen - the bottled radiance of a forgotten age. The ruling elite control it. The Church sanctifies it. The poor die without it.
Lucy Farrow was born in the Gloom, where people disappear without explanation and hope is a luxury nobody can afford.
When a forbidden power awakens inside her, she becomes the most dangerous secret in Aurelion.
The kind people kill for.
The kind empires fall for.
High above, Prince Cassian Soleyne discovers evidence that could unravel everything his family built. As rebellion spreads through the darkness and ancient enemies stir once more, he finds himself drawn toward the one person he should never trust.
A girl who could save their world.
Or burn it to the ground.
⸻ ✧ ⸻
She sat at the polished desk in the Lantern Man's office, copying names in glowing ink.
"Careful with the curves, bright girl," he said.
Lucy straightened her quill. "Yes, sir."
He smiled. Not unkind. Just heavy.
"You've got a quick hand," he murmured. "That's rare here."
She tried not to smile too widely at the praise.
"Say, Lucy... how is your mother?"
She dipped her quill again. "She's fine, sir."
"Is she now?" His cane tapped gently against the floor. Lucy nodded, focused.
"Maybe I should visit her," he said. "It's been a while."
That made her brighten. "Of course, mister! You're always welcome." The tapping stopped.
For a moment, there was only the scratching of her quill. Then the light above her flickered before settling into a slow, steady pulse. The Lantern Man watched it carefully.
"Good", he said.