Chapter One: Weight of Wakening

On the 10th of Yistolê, 502nd Year of Remembered Time (14 days to the Eve of Snows), Poleen Juvukis awakens from a noose’s snap in a rain-soaked forest glade, her neck broken, her memories shattered, and her brother Benê dead. Suspended in a void of whispers from the Listening Gods, she grapples with her identity, declaring, “My name is Poleen Juvukis, and I am dead,” only to hear a defiant inner voice reject death. As sensation returns, she overhears two assassins—one intent on defiling her body, the other repulsed—revealing their orders from the Berjer tê Aprelêu to hang a “thieving witch.” Her neck mysteriously heals, and with newfound strength, Poleen kills the would-be rapist with savage precision, tearing into his skull. Chasing the second man, she learns her name and the Berjer’s intent, killing him too. Haunted by Benê’s death and her own lack of remorse, Poleen scavenges a dagger, coins, and a lantern, setting out along the assassins’ trail to uncover her past and protect her mother, driven by a predator’s instinct and a fractured sense of self.

CMU Chapter 02 — Debts of Living
The Contessa of Mostul Ûbar - Main Chapter Listing