At the far off crest of the valley, the Fastness of Shadowspyre jutted up like a mouthful of rotted teeth, twilight pooling around its many battlements, spilling out into the nearby tindermark forest. Its towers devoured the light, disgorging shadows that cared little for the sun’s angle.

Her Majesty stood at my side. “It doesn't look as bad as the stories."

I steadied my fingers enough to write a single word: Found.

“It's worse, Majesty,” I said.

— Shadowspyre

THE STORY:

Ash Kestrel's rescue attempt was supposed to be simple: save Queen Harrowsparre from an ambush using some admittedly desperate magic. What she didn't plan on was accidentally fracturing her timeline in half, creating two versions of herself racing against catastrophe in parallel realities.

Now the witches of the Achromic Hall are making their move on Shadowspyre, a cursed fortress where time bends and breaks like glass. Their goal? Unleash an army of the dead across the realm. And with reality already hanging by a thread, both versions of Ash are the only ones who can stop them.

Here's where things get complicated: if the two Ashes ever meet, reality collapses entirely. So now she's fighting a war on two fronts - dodging the fragmented ghosts of dead queens, outmaneuvering witches who've been planning this for decades, and trying to seal away Shadowspyre's power forever. All while making sure she never runs into herself.

Both versions are facing the same impossible equation: save yourself, or sacrifice everything to give your other self a shot at saving everyone else. Because sometimes the hardest choice isn't between right and wrong - it's between two versions of doing the right thing.

(Warning: This standalone fantasy contains timeline manipulation, impossible choices, one very determined scholar, and proof that sometimes saving the world means accepting you might not be around to see it. Also dead queens, because apparently regular ghosts weren't complicated enough.)

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