Hi everyone!

  Thank you for being here. :)

  We've reached the end of Book I. Wow! What a ride. It was super exciting to finish this volume, and I'm feeling quite proud of myself. I'd like to thank all of you who were along for the ride, and I truly hope you're as excited for the next volume as I am.

  As mentioned in earlier chapters, I'm hoping to relaunch this series before launching Volume II, and I recently took some time away from all things writing before returning with a fresh lens and my editing cap on, and, yeah, there's a lot of work to be done here. Chapter one is a sloooooggggg and full of errors (thank you all very much for reading and sticking through; you're all so patient and lovely <3.) I've already completely revamped the prologue and Chapter One and believe I've improved substantially in my writing between the first and last chapter; my character voices also feel far more distinct to me now, so I'm hoping that this will all portray more evenly across the novel with the relaunch.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  I'm also hoping to get through editing at least one chapter a day, but we'll see how I go. So far they've each taken several hours, but I'm committed, and I think the difference is huge! This version will remain available until next Monday before I remove the majority, and then the next author's note will include the official link for the relaunched edition + anything relevant for you long-term readers. :)

  Okay, here we go. See ya on the other side!