They’ve reached Virze, a marvel of art and engineering and a city in which all acts of creation are beloved. A perfect occasion to explore and rest before the next leg of their journey… except that Rumi desperately wants to avoid his hometown and the demons of his past. When the Wagon crew realises half of those might be fears of his own making, however, they refuse to leave.
But between the curse that ran him out of town and the source of his engineering skills, Rumi has been keeping even more secrets than they’d expected. He’ll need all their support to face the loved ones left behind and prove to all, himself first and foremost, what he is truly capable of.
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.