Saint of Veils

In the Hollow District, where a second sunset of bleeding magic hangs above the dying sun, detective Caleb Frost counts his fingers every morning, six, always six, to be certain he is still himself. The ritual has become necessary. In the past month, bodies have appeared across the district wearing the faces of long-dead saints, each corpse centuries old yet appearing to have died only hours before. When the latest victim is found bearing the likeness of Athanasius Veil himself, a martyr whose relics vanished generations ago, Caleb inherits the case the city wants quietly closed. Mira Sallow, the only witness who saw the saint walking before she died, refuses to stay silent. Father Castellan warns Caleb that some veils were never meant to be lifted. Renata Kaine, an archivist guarding a hidden ledger, hints that Aurelio Saint-Claire's long-ago disappearance may be the thread that unravels everything. Across the Hollow, other figures surface: Ezra Vant the mortician, Lyssa Vox who claims to have photographed the saint, and The Mysterious Imitator, a presence that appears wherever a new body falls. Caleb must trace a pattern the Hollow itself seems to be erasing. Each clue costs him another sliver of his own identity; each witness contradicts the last. To expose the saint behind the Veil, he must surrender the certainty that the face in the mirror is his own, and accept that the Hollow may already have chosen his replacement.