Brimhold

Not all fantasy stories begin with ethereal elves or gym-rat dwarves. Mine started with too much caffeine, a laggy multiplayer server, and the spectacular implosion of my Gifted Kid burnout tank.

From that chaos came an enchantress-Thalandra. She doesn't plant trees like some gentle forest sprite. No, she tears roots from graves and slams them into the earth like Saturn herself, reshaping the world with violence and persistence until something beautiful grows.

And then there's Brimhold. Iron, ash, and an old soul in a new body. He wasn't supposed to exist, but here he is asking what it means to be real, and what it costs to be kind.

This book is part tragedy, part love story, part meditation on whether kindness can survive when the world keeps twisting the knife. It's also funny in the way life is funny when you send a long emotional rant to a friend, only to realize you messaged it to your dentist's office instead.

If you're looking for something polished, predictable, or polite, then keep walking. But if you've ever wanted to believe that broken things can still protect, and that love can bloom in impossible soil; welcome to the forge.