I am the bad daughter, the freedom fighter, the shaper of death masks. I am the snake, I am the crone; I am caretaker of these ancient trees.
Barbara Jane Reyes, Aswang

────────────

────────────

A CITY PLAGUED BY CRIME AND COBBLESTONE, ETERNALLY EATING ITS OWN TAIL.

A UNIVERSITY BUILT UPON THE BONES OF THE ROT.

A SECRET SOCIETY PLEDGED TO EXCISE THE DECAY BEFORE IT SPREADS.

────────────

────────────

I. The City

Welcome to Hyland, Scotland. Nestled in the gloom-misted verdant of the landlocked North, the old city buries its blood-soaked past beneath the time-worn cobblestone paving its roads, a historical relic preserved in the name of tradition. Where blood is spilled, the Hyland City Council swiftly wipes the slate and plugs all the leaks. But the city knows, and the crows are always watching. 

          Beneath the charming glamour of its gothic architecture lies the knotted scar tissue of the city's ever-worsening crime infestation. Steepled churches jut out from the earth like jagged black teeth, monuments to the insidious rot. Crime and cobblestone: as long as one exists, so does the other. It's only a matter of time before the city collapses in on itself.

II. The University

Hyland University, one of the United Kingdom's leading educational and research institutions, is a millennium-old gem continually polished by the city's governance in light of its crime infestation. Its bones are sunk deep into the city's history. Wrought iron gates surrounding the campuses spread across the city see the emergence and exodus of thousands of brilliant minds, of which only five are privy to the University's best kept secret.

III. The Glaistig Society

To save a city, you have to get your hands a little dirty.

Six postgraduate students are brought together by their master's thesis supervisors into a clandestine organisation pledged to advance the study of applied forensics in order to excise Hyland's crime infestation. Locked in a constant battle against the devouring rot, the Glaistig Society whets the edge of forensic science through unorthodox—and often unethical, but never harmful—research methods across a range of academic disciplines. Once you're in, you walk the fine and flexible line the society has toed all these years. Once you're sworn, you must uphold the society's four core tenets:

         1.   You do not reveal the existence of Glaistig.
          2.  You do not speak of your work outside of the laboratory.
          3.  You must uphold scientific integrity throughout your research.
4. You are not punishers.

Hungry for progress, the society exists in the cracks and crevices of the university, operating in shadows and unbound by ethical principles. To fight crime, you have to fight bloody, and you can't be afraid of getting a little dark.

As the city's criminal activity escalates in malevolence, the research quickly follows in its tenacity, bending the fingers of ethics back to a breaking point. Until one supervisor's work, poisoned by obsession, threatens to actually shatter bone.

The question that now plagues Glaistig is this:

          To what lengths will you go to test a theory?

          (And just how far is too far?)

IV. The Breakthrough

         Cynical and high-strung Murphy Ma is haunted—by what, she wouldn't say. But the secrets played close to her chest are beginning to resemble the scaffolding of a traumatic memory she was the sole survivor of some few years ago. Thus, her obsession with the dichotomy between fight and flight. Which brings us to the nature of her Masters thesis.

Under the supervision of cutthroat visionary Professor Diane Dubanowski, a psychologist who would do anything in the name of a scientific breakthrough, Murphy knows what's at risk. She understands the thankless honour bestowed upon her when Dubanowski brought her into the exclusive and sinister Glaistig Society.

          It started as a pilot study on psychological stimulants and fear response. A novel rehabilitative means of prison reform, leveraging phobia conditioning to deter the risk of reoffending. Until Dubanowski covertly began to deviate from the tenets of Glaistig to further her research.

          A secret within a secret. If anything, Murphy's good at secrets. Not so much at being good. This may be her only shot at securing a place on the prestigious and highly selective Doctorate in Forensic Psychology program at Hyland University. Even if it means hauling corpses out of Dubanowski's dingy basement laboratory for the rest of the academic year.

          Granted, there's only one person within Glaistig more dangerous to their operation than anyone else.

Alex Amiri Shirazi has hope. Landing the illustrious Professor Cordelia Colburn as his thesis supervisor, a prodigal, pioneering figure within the forensics technology industry, is every engineer's dream. Upon his induction into Glaistig, his own scientific mettle is quickly put to the test. For one, Hyland University might be one of the leading research institutions, but it harbours a litany of dark departmental secrets.

His work starts with the long, bloodied trail of dead and missing persons Hyland has been trying to bury for years.

          Alex must work doubly hard to ensure his place with the motley crew of students Glaistig has curated. Including the morally questionable Murphy Ma, who is jammed into his life like a splinter by way of his childhood best friend, Olive Honeycutt. Now, with her involvement in Glaistig, his headache merely worsens—a mutual feeling, perhaps.

The thing is, though they stand on opposite sides of the moral scale, Murphy and Alex are undeniably tied. Both by their line of work, and by their mutual best friend, Olive, an investigative journalism major with a penchant for relentlessly sharp-eyed observations and other people's business. At any cost, Olive must never know about the Glaistig Society. And Alex must never know about Dubanowski's brazen divergence.

          Secrets within secrets.

The only way this ends is in blood.

────────────

────────────

SOUNDTRACK.
modus: manner, measure

✷

TRIGGER WARNING.
This book will contain (and discuss) topics such as violence, suicidal ideation and tendencies, and sexual assault.

Please proceed with caution and prioritise your own mental health first.

✷

AUTHOR'S NOTE.

this one's dedicated to my psychology majors.

this was born bc my boyfriend said that, statistically, we (psych and CS/engineering majors) were the most likely pairing in our uni when we first met. and now here we are. 3 years and counting. so this is also a love letter to my super cute boyfriend who is NOT on this hellsite and will never know about this book at least until it's finished.

ANYWAY. onward with advancing forensic science!