
by Lije Clay
A blood-soaked, mind warping fever dream through the layered realities of an author’s crumbling imagination, guided by a mysterious twelve year-old man. One, a grizzled hunter, possessed by the horrifying ghosts of those who stood in his way. Two, a half-mad dancer, doing everything she can to hold her crumbling family together and protect her unborn son. Three, a baby, conscious inside his mother and struggling with burgeoning psychic abilities. Four, a convergence of in-human monsters, bone-clad wizard cyborgs, and self-worshiping cops hellbent on the extermination of their kind. Discovering the secret of the unborn baby’s strange abilities will not only determine the survival of this bizarre family, but the answer to unspoken riddles posed by the twelve year-old man to the lost author listening to their story play out. Riddles that may prove to be more than games. Can you read in the dark? What to Expect: 2-3 chapters Wednesdays Already finished but want to spread out the release a bit so I can get feedback. Total is 40+ chapters but divided into 3 books. I don't really like to give too much context ahead of time but what I will say you can expect is: - Dark, heavy themes - Failure with the hope of Redemption - Intense and Violent action - Philosophical dialogue - Mind bending story beats and concepts
No streak history
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 2 Oct 2026, 05:49 UTC
Entry forecast updated 2 Oct 2026, 05:49 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
4%
Two or more lists
2%
Likely threshold order: Psychological → Sci-fi → Fantasy → Adventure → Main.
Leading bundle: Psychological + Sci-fi (2%).
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
#9559 of 12,148 · 9509 below RS #50
By genre
beats 90% of similar stories
not enough data yet
beats 20% of similar stories
Hidden gem — exposure is the bottleneck
Readers who find this story follow it at a high rate; there just aren't enough of them. In our cohort data, near-daily posting lifted the odds of reaching 25 followers from ~0% to 17% — more chapters, shoutout swaps and ads buy the eyeballs this conversion deserves.
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.
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