Book 1 of the Ashes of Vyrkesh
Sometimes doing the right thing means walking a dark road to find the light…
When freelancer Markus Rend arrived at the mountain town of Mournkova, his sights were no higher than a warm meal and a quiet bed. Only the town had different ideas. A snap judgment to help Lady Lilia Denkaru from a false death sentence throws them into an old conspiracy that trades lives like currency. Fear, bloodlines, and the great houses of the Blood Clans become a battleground. The weapons are unspeakable experiments, necromantic blood rites, and a plague that carves up the living—and turns the dead into something unspeakably worse.
Hunted by rival clans, occult conspirators, and a rogue scholar, Markus and Lilia have to stop the madness before it burns the lands alive. Along the way, they must decide who they are willing to become to carve out hope, surviving a world built on fear, exploitation, and inherited monstrosity.
Because in the lands of Vyrkesh, mercy can save a soul… or destroy it.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: A Town Called Mourning
Ashes of Vyrkesh is a work of pure, unabashed fiction. While grim, it’s oddly heroic, steadfast, and needs to learn to duck a little more often. Did I mention it’s got a good singing voice? Operatic, even. Names of characters, places, events, organizations, and locations are all creations of the author’s imagination for this fictitious setting. So, naturally, he gets all the blame.
Any resemblance to persons living, dead, alchemically altered, or how-are-they-still-alive is coincidental. The opinions expressed are those of the characters and should not be confused with the author’s, since the characters and the author tend to disagree. A lot. Like daily.