
by emwritestoomuch
Riven Serac is scheduled for euthanasia. A failed rook who slaughtered her handler, she is dangerous and unstable–a shapeshifting runt not worth saving. Following regulations, the Praetorate sends a powerful Second Accipiter to put her down. Second Accipiter Asher Nepenthes has spent her life controlling monsters, weapons, and battlefields. She does not hesitate, even if it means killing what she loves. Until she sees Riven. The girl who once stood at her side is now the rook she’s meant to kill, and Asher makes a choice that will cost her everything. Now fugitives, handler and rook are bound together as they flee a system built to hunt them. Riven was never meant to survive without control. Asher was never meant to lose it. Every mile forces them closer, every step blurring the line between command and trust, between what they were trained to be and what they might become. But the Praetorate does not forget its weapons, and powerful families and factions want their share. When the past finally closes in, Asher and Riven will be forced to decide not just whether they will survive,but whether they are willing to burn the system that made them in order to choose each other.Asher's Rook is a dual POV, character-driven romantasy with action beats. This novel is part of the first wave of the Sapphic Summer Launch! If you'd like to meet other authors or browse the other books, join me on their Discord. Make sure to say I sent ya! I'm not doing a Patreon push with Asher's Rook. If you read it and feel like buying me coffee, here's my Ko-fi!
#26
8/16/2026
Peak #50
0d
#25
8/15/2026
Peak #50
0d
#24
8/15/2026
Peak #49
0d
#23
8/15/2026
Peak #49
0d
#22
8/14/2026
Peak #48
0d
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 2 Oct 2026, 04:49 UTC
Entry forecast updated 2 Oct 2026, 04:49 UTC
Ranking model: rs-public-oracle-state-v1
Forecast model: rs-model-entry-v1
Chart history contains only this ranking model's runs; legacy points are not spliced in.
Coupled 14-day outlook
rs-joint-entry-copula-v1
Any eligible RS entry
34%
Two or more lists
3%
Likely threshold order: Drama → Romance → Adventure → Fantasy → Main.
Leading bundle: Drama (31%).
Estimated from one fitted shared story path; category probabilities are not multiplied as if lists were independent.
Separate entry forecast; this probability does not enter the ranking score.
Overall Rising Stars Shadow RS rank
#9168 of 12,127 · 9118 below RS #50
By genre
beats 81% of similar stories
beats 31% of similar stories
beats 91% of similar stories
Firing on all cylinders
Traffic and conversion are both strong for a story this size. Readers are finding it and sticking — if Rising Stars is the goal, this is the moment to push.
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 20–49 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views over the recent window.
+18 more