Mercy and Wards

A monk takes a blade meant for a frightened boy. A witch watching through her hawk refuses to let his mercy end in a prison cell.

When Maeril helps Rishi out of a Paris prison, she offers him food, shelter, and no debt. What begins as wary care becomes love—and a shared conviction: mercy should reach farther than their own hands.

Together, they turn years of notes into a book and carry it south to Fleury Abbey. But the road tests every argument on its pages with violence, sickness, and lives trapped behind closed doors.

To make mercy last, the monk and the witch must learn how wounds become knowledge, how knowledge becomes protection—and how love can shelter them without demanding pain in return.