No Truths Between Us [Gaslamp Progression Fantasy]

He can wear any face but the one she'd recognize. Henri: when he crawls out of a thaumic prison, he's lost everything. No magic, no name worth keeping, and scars around his throat. What he has is a gift for learning fast and a burning need to make five immortal men pay for what they did to him. Eliza: Ministry thaumic hunter, precise where Henri is reckless, honest where he is smoke and mirrors. When her investigation pulls Henri into her sights, she has every reason to bring him down, and one reason, buried deep, to hesitate. They had a history, and Henri was the one who broke it. Henri and Eliza spiral ever closer together, driven by duty and vengeance. But vengeance doesn't feed you. Before Henri can challenge men who shatter stars and whisper in the ears of lords, he needs to rebuild his lost powers in a gaslit empire of steam and thauma where even the constellations are man-made. And he needs to eat, toiling in a kitchen for copper glints, kneading bread and building a life one honest skill at a time. Which yields him the greatest challenge of all: to remember what it means to be human.Five conspirators. Five reckonings. But first, a chef's knife before a sword, and two people who'll have to decide if the truth between them is a promise or a weapon. True Names • True Debts • True Reckoning • True Vengeance • True Peace "Like The Count of Monte Cristo with magic and progression." "Legends & Lattes crossed with Nine Princes in Amber." What to expect: - Weak but clever MC Earned - Slow progression, soft stats, no grinding - Sympathetic MCs, slow-burn romance - Victorian magic, steampunk-light - Clean: no explicit sex, no gratuitous violence