Thalmyr: The Pulse Below

In a world where death is permanent and no one respawns, an ancient warning system called the Pulse hums beneath the earth. Only one in a thousand can hear it. They are called Deep-Listeners. And someone is hunting them.

Caelum Durn is a soldier of the Stone Clans, captured during a desperate raid and left to rot in the dungeons of Aldreth's Keep. His captors don't know he can hear the Pulse. They don't know the cult called the Verath wants people like him. When the cult's leader, the Warden, visits his cell with an offer of freedom in exchange for his gift, Caelum refuses. He knows the Pulse is screaming a warning. And he knows better than to ignore it.

Rowan Aldreth is the princess of the Dominion, sharp-tongued and armored in wit. She's spent her life buried in books while her father, the king, rules with cold detachment. When border villages start burning and reports of black-robed figures surface, Rowan digs deeper and uncovers a truth that shatters everything: her father is working with the Verath. The same cult burning villages. The same cult hunting Deep-Listeners.

When Rowan visits the dungeons to interrogate a prisoner, she discovers Caelum can hear the Pulse too. Two enemies. One secret. An alliance neither of them wanted.

Now they're fugitives. Hunted by the Dominion. Hunted by the Verath. Armed with nothing but a warning only they can hear, they must cross a fractured land of warring factions, ancient ruins, and ordinary people caught in the crossfire. Because buried beneath the earth are obsidian portals sealed a thousand years ago. And if the Verath open them, what comes through won't care which side you're on.

A story about found family, slow-burn romance, and two people from opposite sides of a war learning that the world worth saving is the one worth building together.

Updates daily/weekly.