The Wards Will Fall

The Wards Will Fall

Farseer meets Sabriel in this queer dark fantasy about a melancholic seer, possessed by a spirit, who must solve the mystery of the return of ancient magic before his soul is consumed.

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“This is a story both of a desperate expedition into lost land and the examination of where alienation and love meet in our hearts. The Wards Will Fall evokes the setting of books like Sabriel, while also setting off in its own direction with its magic and characters. The themes of the story feel well connected to our modern plights, while the story itself is a fascinating journey of isolation, consent, questioning, and self-discovery.” - Beta reader

"It genuinely made me fall back in love with reading when I'd been in a slump, with how it taps into the energies of Robin Hobb and of Final Fantasy, of queer survival and social upheaval. For all that it reminded me of all the things that made me fall in love with fantasy, there's nothing quite like it." - Beta reader

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Only warders, guards of the border garrisons armed with repellent sigils, are able to protect against the hyssil, ravenous spirits that curse the abandoned wilds since the magic of the last mage empire crumbled over a thousand years prior. Thanks to a century of protection since the last sigil failure, the threat of the hyssil has dulled in the minds of the Talmany populace to an uneasy memory.

Unfortunately for Maxwell Darrow, some memories come back to haunt you.

Stationed at the South Point garrison, Maxwell is a government seer conscripted for a ten year border contract, providing his magical Sight in service to a garrison theurgist. He’s survived three years, despite the growing dangers, and is determined to complete his contract so he can escape into more lucrative seer work far from any threat.

But when a swarm of hyssil overwhelms South Point, Maxwell's life is overturned in a single, terrible night. His garrison is overrun, his fellow warders dead or possessed. Talmany is soon to be lost, but maybe there is still hope. Far to the north lies Lathuel, a land that might as well be myth, guarded by impenetrable magic. Lathuel hasn't communicated with the outside world since the fall of the mage empire, but if anyone can save Maxwell's people from the hyssil, it's them.

Driven by determination and grief, it’s up to Maxwell to overcome myth and deadly memories made reality to save Talmany from devastation. But his journey is complicated by discovering a hyssil has bound itself to him, corrupting his soul. The hyssil is uncomfortably attractive, impossible to ignore, and seemingly sincere that Maxwell’s pursuit of help in Lathuel will only lead to worse consequences for them both.

Caught between Lathuel’s figurehead queen and her infighting aristocracy, Maxwell must uncover the truth while facing his own corruption in a land teetering on revolution, and the spirits are drawing ever closer...

Content warnings are below for the entire novel. There will not be chapter-level warnings. A general disclaimer for descriptions of violence, death and gore.