Hidden Oaths: The Old Teacher

Henry Grave died an old man beneath a yellow lamp, in a quiet room lined with books.He expected the small mercies of ending.Instead, he wakes in another man’s body, young, powerful, and poisoned to the brink of death. The body is Decimus Margrave’s.The life is not. Hidden Oaths, the sect Decimus was meant to lead, is already rotting from within. Its authority has thinned into habit. Its enemies circle at a distance. Beneath the mountain, the city under its protection is sliding towards hunger, sickness, and unrest. Within its halls, old failures linger like ghosts. Henry was never meant for this world of cultivation and violence. He is not a chosen hero, nor a man hungry for power. He is a teacher. A widower of nothing, a father to no one, an old man who spent his life trying to teach the young that character is forged in duty, restraint, and sacrifice. Now those principles are all he has. To survive, Henry must wear a dead man’s face, uncover the hand that poured poison into Decimus Margrave’s cup, and take up an office already burdened by shame, neglect, and expectation. Around him gather wounded disciples, hard-eyed elders, abandoned children, and a sect too fragile to survive another weak master. But mercy is costly.Responsibility is heavier than power.And in a world where strength is worshipped, kindness without force is merely another name for failure. Hidden Oaths: The Old Teacher is a cultivation fantasy of inheritance, duty, and the terrible intimacy of choosing who may yet be saved. (Author Bio) Makadewaandeggek (Black Hawk in English) is a proud member of the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nations. Granted the right to carry a medicine bag by his elders and chief, he dreams of enriching the literary world. After writing speeches for a member of Canada’s Parliament, he chose fiction as a more meaningful arena for storytelling. (Cover Art)  Drawn by Yves Muench (On Fiver)