Scorchmarks: Sins of a Sootmaker (ePub)

**NOTE: 100% of this work's profits will go to charity!**

There is no future on Olbercuse. Time swings back and forth on its eternal course, while men and nations die only to be born again. A thousand gods stake their claims to humanity's highly transient souls, and deities too mad to be loved are hidden away to plot revenge in damp prisons. Kethlin has been trapped in this cycle for centuries, only vaguely aware of her previous lives, when a wrong word spoken in the wrong ear at the moment of death lands her the worst gift of all: a memory. To know your previous self is to invite paradox, and paradoxes will not be tolerated.

Enter Derrin, a Student of Soot. He promises an escape from Kethlin's curse, though in reality he aims to use her to seek out an audience with the god who has snubbed him his whole life. Following Derrin are his former friends, now his hunters, seeking vengeance for past wrongs and death for the walking paradox in his care. At the same time, a holy war has erupted in the underbelly of Wellborn, squalid capital of distant Dunyana… and Kethlin's fated destination. Along the way, she wrestles constantly with the power of her gift, leaving a trail of destruction that draws the attention of enemies and allies alike. Almost as deadly are the motivations of the madmen and suicidal immortals she must enlist to survive the hostile nations and scheming gods aligned against her: a reminder that desperate times call for even more desperate friends.

And in the deepest jungles, word stirs among the trees. Finish what was started. Let us be kindling for the true end of the world…

***

Complete at 265,000 words, Scorchmarks is an epic fantasy adventure in the vein of Sanderson and Jordan. It is set on a world where time has broken free of its axis and doomed humans and gods alike to life without past or future. On this strange pendulum, there are no heroes. Its actors are devoid of selflessness, their alliances built of convenience and mutual desire and held together by truths they don't dare share. Yet for a young woman with the threat of an axe looming over her neck, these imperfect humans are the only hope she has of thwarting a destiny she never wanted.