STORIES WHERE POWER HAS A PRICE.

Nyala has carried Ophidia for ninety-three years. She knows the scythe’s weight better than she knows the woman inside it.

She likes her contracts clear and her private life left alone. Most people take the hint. Kiva, a stubborn runner with questions Nyala would rather not answer, keeps turning up anyway.

Across the Aerie, dungeon gates are reporting that everything is safe. The readings are wrong. Nyala has spent a century surviving things other people don’t, but the city is becoming harder to protect—and, inconveniently, she’s getting attached to the people in it.

Back home, a small spirit beast has claimed her windowsill. It has never asked permission for anything. She finds this considerably easier to deal with than people.