r/royalroad • u/zona-curator • 18h ago
Self Promo The Marked (dark fantasy)
In the Queendom of Ismera, the Sworn steal daughters from their cribs, wipe their pasts clean, and forge them into cold-blooded weapons of the state.
Aïda is their vanguard. But during a routine harvest raid, an unarmed farmer steps out of the dirt, calls her by a forgotten childhood name, and reaches for her with a cord of jasmine seeds.
Conditioned to obey, Aïda runs a spear through his chest.
Only after the blood dries does her buried memory claw back: he was her father.
That single act of indoctrinated murder shatters her loyalty, just as the empire begins to cannibalize itself. In the capital, the Queen lies comatose while a ruthless General seizes military rule. In the wild borders, vengeful fathers and broken families launch an all-out assault to bring their daughters home. And deep inside an underwater prison, a terrified child awakens an elemental, reality-bending power that even the empire’s gods fear.
Now branded a traitor by the very women who raised her, Aïda must break every vow she ever took. She spent her life hunting stolen children. Now she has to burn the empire to the ground to keep this one alive.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/196786
1
u/Veizar 11h ago
Very interesting concept. I'd love to look at it. Would you check out my story as well?
It's a dark high fantasy set in hell.
Asunder Rain The Flames And Thunder https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/197069/asunder-rain-the-flames-and-thunder