The Cost of Survival

The follow up to Iliyria's prequel novella, Wisteria in Winter. 

The royal court of Isrannore is ash, the old world is broken, and Iliyria is the wrong kind of survivor.

Hunted by scandal she refuses to explain and watched by men who would rather see her silent than useful, she hides among the refugee tents outside Cyslone with an infant in her arms and a handful of companions she will not let the war swallow. But the demons pushing across Miriel don’t care what she has lost, and neither does the Elven Circle of Mages, whose leader, Selivar, is determined to drag her back into the narrow life she has already burned down.

When a single ally offers her a different path, one that trades obedience for training, and fear for command, Iliyria makes a choice that will change her forever. She marches toward the front in borrowed boots, learns what leadership costs in blood, and discovers that her power is not an accident or a mistake, it is a weapon the world now demands she wield.

As battle lines collapse and rumors sharpen into knives, Iliyria is forced to decide who she is willing to become to keep others alive: a symbol, a soldier, or something far more dangerous.

Because survival is never free.

Other Places the Work is Published:

I have my stories published on my campaign's World Anvil, the World is title Elantra and the author is mjmc2u (me).