The Hollow Crown of Aethrun

Mara Veld is a cartographer of endings. When her old survey line leads her into the muck of Sorrowfen, she uncovers the bones of a kingdom no living map remembers, a realm swallowed by water, grief, and something older than grief. At its heart sits the Hollow Crown of Aethrun, an artifact of bone and drowned gold that offers dominion over the dead in exchange for the wearer's name, their face, their every memory of love. Mara is no warrior. She carries ink and birchbark, not swords, yet the crown has chosen her anyway. To survive the sunken city, she must bargain with the Ferrywoman who trades in forgotten things, earn the trust of Wicker, a smuggler half-drowned by his own past, and face the Echo-Swordsman, a duelist who fights only with the weapons of the dead. Along the way, she learns that Elder Halsa has long guarded the truth of the crown, that Captain Toval intends to buy her time with his own blood, and that Chyr the Librarian has been waiting centuries for someone to finish a story the drowned began. Coral-throned courtiers rise from the canals to test her resolve. Thael the Clay-Warden judges her heart against an ancient ledger. Each step forward costs Mara something she cannot name. To save the healed villagers waiting at the marsh's edge, she must decide what she is willing to surrender, and whether a crown that eats its wearer can ever be set down unbroken.