SYPNOSIS

MISTAKES WERE MADE. FRIENDSHIPS WERE DESTROYED. BUT NOW HE'S THE ONLY ONE WHO COULD HELP HER.

Cassalyn Diao has made a dangerous, faceless enemy, and the only people in the world who could help her are the same ones she had abandoned six years ago. But she doesn't have a choice. Her sister is missing, her family doesn't care, and her adversary is too much for even her to take down alone.

Marcus, Earl of Farnsworth, had lost his heart to the dark-haired spy years ago and still hadn't gotten it back. When she arrives at his doorstep half-dead and bleeding, he decides that he'd do anything to return her back into his arms. Whatever it takes.

But they'll have to outwit their lethal opponent first, and as the clock ticks forward and the people closest to them are thrust into jeopardy, Marcus and Cassalyn find themselves in danger of losing much more than just their hearts in this game of cat-and-mouse.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

AUTHOR'S NOTE

vvv excited for this. i've wanted to write a "fantasy"-ish novel for many years, and this is it! keep in mind this book does not have the magic we're used to reading abt (though if i continue on with my plan there will be more magicky-magic introduced), but it is set in an world that closely mimics our own that's a mashed-up version of my favourite periods of history of countries around the world— the ancient egyptians, regency england, early 1900s china, meiji japan, the french revolution and more!! this is the first duology in a much larger series.

update (4/12/2024):
hello!!! so this story was part of the paid scheme for a couple years but now it's free again!! a lot has happened since then, the overall chronicles is still technically incomplete, but I currently have no intentions of writing what should be the last three books of the series. I do think the series could be approached as "completed", since the first three arcs have all been written. this is, of course, the first book, followed by "hawk and sable", and I hope you all enjoy reading :)

PLEASE NOTE

this world is based closely off our real one, and this includes the history and politics of each country. while much of it remains similar, please note that it is not meant to be 100% accurate, and i have added, omitted and edited as i felt necessary, especially regarding topics i feel like i haven't done enough sufficient research to tackle/i do not believe i could portray accurately/i personally do not feel is necessary for my world. neither do i personally agree with all the "counterparts" of more modern political issues that the characters within this story believe in. hence, please do not go after me if you disagree with what my characters believe in!

another major part i altered much in is the titles/ranks of saian (chinese) characters. i've taken a heavy western influence for them, using the lord/lady of (location) template instead of the historically accurate chinese ones. one of the reasons for this is because the titles and ranks of ancient china were visibly explicitly for men (the chinese character for a baron is literally the character for 'male'), and i found it difficult to fit them into a story where many titled females exist. another reason is the fact that i'm mainly using qing dynasty titles for reference, and these are extremely confusing. even for the simple role of princess, there was eight different leves of titles. i have no interest in giving myself or my readers a massive, splitting headache.

as this is a story that heavily features espionage, the overlying arch of this entire series would involve a war between countries. hence, i've had no choice but to make one of the counterpart countries the general "enemy" of the story (melique). i do not view either the country it's based off or the people of the country poorly. i've done my best to mix multiple countries of various different cultures into one for melique in order to not offend anyone. currently, melique is geographically based off south american countries and inspired by meiji-era japan and french revolution and napoleonic-era france, along with early ussr.

there is strong language and hints at explicit content within the story, though none of it is clearly shown. read at your own risk!

5/4/2021 - 20/5/2021
(first draft completed)