The Herbalist and the Harp

Seven games in, the host has stopped hiding what he is: the taking half of a soul, cut out before the first game and made to run the show. Six times he has built the perfect cage out of his own appetite. Six times the better half has looked at the easy door and chosen the expensive one instead.

This time the trap is gentler, and crueler. A rain-soft valley. A healer's patient craft. A woman, and a chord on a harp she has never quite been able to land. No dungeon, no kingpin, no ending of the world — just a quiet life, an open hand, and a love that asks to be chosen with both eyes wide open to everything it will cost.

The lesson of Game Seven is the one the host dreads most of all: loving anyway.

A standalone game in the Across Infinities saga — for readers who want their fantasy tender, aching, and impossible to put down.