Stone and Steel

General Aaliyah returns to Titus expecting victory to mean security for the city she serves. Instead, she finds citizens struggling and a growing imbalance in the rule of Queen Odessa, a powerful stone mage. Loyalty to the queen no longer offers a simple guide to what loyalty to the city requires. As Aaliyah takes stock of what has changed, she must draw on relationships both old and new to understand the danger and decide how to respond. This fantasy novella places personal attachments alongside public responsibility, following a woman whose military success cannot settle the harder question of how to protect a home when its own leadership has become a source of harm.