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A Duet of Ash and Ink
Paperback
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Publisher: Independently Published
Pages: 132
Weight: 0.37
Height: 0.33 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
A disgraced restorer of forbidden books. A cynical High Censor holding a deadly debt. An ancient grimoire that eats the minds of anyone who dares to open it.
In the subterranean granite vaults of Oakhaven, knowledge is a death sentence. Aurelia Vance lives in the shadows of the slums, scraping by on black-market book repairs. Disgraced and expelled from the Royal Archives, she hides a dangerous secret: she possesses Bibliosmia, a rare sensory magic that allows her to read the history and emotional echoes trapped in old paper. But when the Censor's iron-clad guards drag her from her cellar in chains, she is presented with a terrifying ultimatum.
Translate the Codex of Ashes-a sentient, predatory grimoire that has already left Oakhaven's finest scholars completely hollowed out-or face a systematic cognitive sweep that will bleach her mind into empty, silent parchment.
Her supervisor? None other than Lord Julian Sterling, the brilliant, sardonically cruel Censor who personally testified to her disgrace two years ago. Julian is a martyr masked as a monster, carrying a Faustian debt to a syndicate that holds the cardiac clockwork of his dying sister. He needs the Codex translated to buy her medicine. He needs Aurelia's mind. And he will play the villain to the very end to keep them both alive.
Forced into a volatile partnership, Aurelia and Julian must navigate the shifting, physics-defying pocket dimensions inside the burning grimoire. As they decode its secrets, they must trade intellectual barbs, hide their secrets, and survive the auditory echoes of their own deepest regrets. But to ground their minds against the book's cognitive rot, they must trigger the Mnemonic Resonance-a skin-on-skin palm scar touch that acts as a quiet, snow-swept field of silent, warm paper.
But the Censors have a final decree: once the translation is complete, both scholars are marked for permanent isolation. In a race against time, their fading minds, and an autocratic empire, Aurelia and Julian must form a defiant pact to enter the book one last time and destroy its core from the inside.
If they succeed, they win their freedom. If they fail, they will forget they ever loved each other.
Drawing inspiration from the tactile, historical grit of Ninth House and the blistering academic rivalry of Babel, A Duet of Ash and Ink is a breathtaking, slow-burn Gothic Dark Academia Romantasy masterpiece filled with rich archival detail, high-stakes heists, and a romance written in forbidden ink.
The vault doors have closed. The translation has begun. Scroll up and grab your copy of Book 1 today!
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