Beneath the Shadow of Torment

The Wheel of Torment never stopped. It just went quiet — kept turning, until the end of time. Decades ago, a war caused by the Torment swept the land of Emelain, with a plague that twisted the living into monsters, refused the dead their rest, and left the land scarred with wounds that never healed. The foe was defeated. But defeat did not make this land a better place. After Queen Ayphise Angia Visel vanished, the Kingdom of Solem that had once ruled the continent entered a grieving age without a king. The common enemy was gone. The common ruler was gone. What remained was something worse — an era of drifting currents. Invaders from other continents gnawed at the lands of the Solemite lords, while the native powers of Emelain sharpened their blades against one another. The whole continent stirred beneath a fragile peace that could shatter at any moment into war — a bloodier, more brutal war than the last. Former comrades turned into enemies. Former heroes butchered one another. And in the shadows of the world, the avatar of fate watched silently as mortals walked toward their own madness. Dangerous beasts carried across the seas by the invasions, and the Torment spawn left behind, gradually became new threats in ordinary lives. And so the adventurers rose. They are the wanderers of the world, often dismissed as thugs and criminals. Yet only they know what the work truly means — to themselves, and to everyone else. Delina Avansse is one such adventurer: struggling, surviving in a world of malice and suffering, until death takes her in a fight, as it takes them all. In any other age, that might have been fate's final word on her. But the clock of fate is turning. Schemes from the past and from the hidden world are rising to the surface, and Emelain is being drawn back into the maelstrom of destiny. Whether she wills it or not, Delina will be swept into it — and forced to face the past she once refused. Beneath the Shadow of Torment is the opening of a planned epic fantasy series. It begins in the dark marshes of Rodwen, and expands, arc by arc, into a wider world of fallen gods, lost histories, and the question at the heart of everything: whether fate is something you endure, or something you take. What to expect: A morally gray female lead who earns every victory and pays for every mistake Slow-burn mystery woven through escalating action Magic with a cost — and a flame that becomes something else Dark beginnings that open into adventure A world where every debt comes due