Fate and friendship brought Horace, Rumi, Keza, and Aliyah together in Rumi's sentient self-propelling wagon. Their travels across a world haunted by Fragments, dangerous shards that can possess travellers, has brought many answers about Aliyah's past, her strange abilities, and the Fragments themselves.Only one obstacle remains between them and the forest of Aliyah's dreams: a cursed marsh filled with ever-shifting terrain and thick Fragment storms. When Keza spots the sacred flowers of her people, however, she drags Horace deep into the marsh, to a crumbled monastery. Nothing is left of its previous inhabitants but the angry Fragmented remains of an Inae Earth Master.The master is desperate to pass on their knowledge, a technique far different from Keza's water dance, but in order to do so, they require a body to possess and a worthy heir. Horace provides a perfect host, but Keza-abrasive, uncouth, and exiled from her own clan-is far from the ideal student. Sparks fly between mentor and pupil, and Keza will need to rein in her natural snark if she wants to free her friend and inherit her people's lost traditions. Claudie Arseneault is an easily-enthused aromantic and asexual writer with a never-ending cycle of obsessions but an enduring love for all things cephalopod and fantasy (together or not!). She writes stories that centre platonic relationships and loves large casts and single-city settings, the most notable of which are the City of Spires series (2017-2023) and Baker Thief (2018).In addition to her own fiction, Claudie has co-edited Common Bonds (2021), an anthology of aromantic speculative short stories. She is a founding member of The Kraken Collective, an alliance of self-publishing SFF authors, and the creator of the Aromantic and Asexual Characters Database.
