The Memory Toll

Death in the sun-scorched city of Lymnos is no longer an escape; it is a ledger. Ten years ago, the skies burned purple, and the Dust-Blight began eating time from everyone it touched. Now, those who fall can be brought back by the System, but the toll is paid in memory. Every resurrection strips away what makes them who they are.

Kallias was once the premier blademaster of the southern arenas, earning a fortune he squandered before the Blight settled in his own lungs. Out of time and slipping closer to the memory-toll with each breath, he scrapes together days by coaching those desperate enough to enter the gauntlet of the Culling Games. But when his new student, a prodigy with a lethal disregard for the rules, unearths a hidden mechanic within the System—a way to siphon time directly from the blighted beasts without losing memories—Kallias sees a final payout.

To survive the encroaching season of rot, a cynic past his prime and a talent who has never tasted true defeat must navigate a lethal tournament, a corrupt resurrection industry, and the deadly echoes of a past they can barely afford to remember.