A Harsh Welcome

A sick town. A hunted blind woman. Two sisters whose conflict is about to become everyone’s fight.

At the edge of the Morvan, sickness is weakening the people of Lormes. Every unanswered symptom turns fear into accusation, and the town’s fragile peace with the people of the Serein begins to fray. Rishi and Maeril arrive intending to help. In Lormes, help becomes leverage—and scrutiny.

When Maeril shelters Aestra, a blind Katari woman bound to an ailing dryad, care becomes interference. To reach the source of the sickness, Rishi and Maeril join a caravan of the Concord of the Serein, Aestra’s people, into Moonglade’s forest territory. Passage does not mean welcome, and old violence still marks every path.

As forest law, old grief, and a failing bond tighten around them, every path leads back to two elven sisters. What waits is more than a cure or a judgment: a confrontation fierce enough that good intentions cannot protect everyone caught between them—and survival itself is no longer certain.