The Black Bear Codex

Framed. Exiled. Out For Revenge. Aryen Thatcher was the respected bodyguard for the teenage daughter of a wealthy banking family until he was framed for bribery and betrayal during a brutal House War. Five years have passed since his release from the dungeons, and now he runs a tailor shop in his hometown, kept afloat by the occasional mercenary job. Banished from high society and barred from the local merchant guild, Thatcher lives an isolated life, the consuming nature of his creative work providing the only bulwark against the haunting scars of the questioner’s torments and his own failures. When he receives a letter from a reformed gambler confessing he set him up to pay off his debts, Thatcher decides it’s time to discover who wanted him gone and why. To fund the exploration into his past, Thatcher escorts 15-year-old Emeric across the country to the Covenant University. When the boy is kidnapped two weeks later, Thatcher could ignore it and focus on finding who destroyed his life. He really could. But somehow “Hey, it didn’t happen on my watch” doesn’t seem like the right thing to say to Emeric’s parents before asking for payment. The two investigations overlap, weaving a pattern of hidden plots and shadowy manipulations across the years. If Emeric is ever going to be safe—if Thatcher is going to live long enough to clear his name—Thatcher must uncover what the kidnappers want with Emeric, what the Covenant is hiding, and what it all has to do with a two-thousand-year-old manuscript. WHAT TO EXPECT: -Gambling -Swashbuckling -Hard-Boiled Vibes -Renaissance Noir -One Last Job -Revenge -Reluctant Mentor Chapters 1-5 posted Tuesday May 5. New chapters daily May 6 - May 24. MWF schedule starts May 25. PATREON 10 CHAPTERS AHEAD