CURRENT WIP
Two paths. One choice. Zero room for deviation.

Chapter 1 - Eve

The boy swings the branch, and in my head, he isn’t just a child on a gray platform waiting for the train. He’s a Guardian. The branch is a silver pike, and he’s holding the line against a pack of Feral Snarlers, the wild, four-legged beasts the history streams say used to tear people apart after the fall, and before Harmony.

Low to the ground, teeth like jagged glass, I think, my finger twitching against my thigh to feel the words. They move in the shadows of the old world, waiting for a single gap in the formation.

A White Coat turns. The boy freezes. The pike becomes a broken branch again.

I turn away as the White Coat notices the young boy. It’s polite not to stare as someone gets redirected. Instead, I pretend to be interested in the train platform. White and gray concrete surrounds me. Eight pillars on each side and three deep hold up the matching open air concrete ceiling.

A few others stand around, all keeping a six-foot distance between us as expected.

Light footsteps can be heard as others turn and move away from the boy and the White Coat. It’s not a written rule, though the way we all respond, you’d think otherwise.

My imagination was much like his when I was that age. Turning mundane objects into items different from what the rest of society sees them as. I was naïve back then.

I glanced toward the pillar, tracking the clock face rather than the boy.

8:19am

The train will arrive in a minute or less. I’ll have to pretend the flat architecture of the train platform is something to study for only a moment or two longer.

“Eve,” a high-pitched voice says softly from behind me.

My lips form a smile as I recognize the voice. I resist the urge to spin around quickly, turning with a practiced slowness until I find Maz.

“Greetings, Maz,” I say, the words feeling warmer than any I’ve spoken all day. “How are you this fine morning?”

She slides into my space, whittling the six-foot gap down to four. As Social Friends, we're allowed this narrow overlap of air, a small mercy of the rules that I find myself clinging to this morning.

Her blue eyes flick up to me as she takes a moment to push her brown curls away from her face and says, “I’m doing well. Now, enough with the proper greeting. Today's the day, right? You’re taking the PATH.”

If I’m fortunate enough to be granted a child permit, I do hope she turns out like Maz. Smart, proper most of the time, but not afraid to get straight to what she wants. Even at ten years old, I can tell. She has a bright future here with Harmony.

“Yes, I’m heading there now.”

The final word leaves my lips as the train comes around the bend a few dozen meters away. The hum of the mag lift engaging arrives a heartbeat later.

“That’s so exciting,” Maz says. “Do you know what you’re going to pick?”

My mind blanks as I stare at her. “I only get to pick if I’ve scored high enough in multiple roles. That’s not common, you know.”

Maz glances at the boy and the White Coat for a moment before whispering. “I think you’d be great at storytelling.”

My eyes widen and move quickly around, checking for anyone close by. “Maz, you can’t say things like that out here. The stories I make up are just for you. Remember.”

“I remember,” she says, looking at her feet. “I’m sorry, Eve.”

Letters form into words. Words into lines. None of which I’m allowed to create. I still remember the first time I traced a word in the dirt.

Just four crooked letters, scratched behind the storage shed where no one could see. My heart hammered so loudly I was sure it would echo off the brick. I kept glancing over my shoulder, half expecting a White Coat to step out of the alley with a citation pad already in hand.

The marks looked wrong. Uneven. Fragile. One good breeze and they’d be gone.

I erased them with my shoe, just to be safe.

Storytellers are the only ones allowed to leave marks that last. Books, streams, archived history. If they aren’t sanctioned by Harmony, they only lead to harm.

“It’s okay, Maz. I’m not mad.”

She glances up, giving me her ‘I’m sorry’ look she uses on her father. “I promise to be more careful, Eve. I’ll recite the ten laws tonight, so I don’t forget.”

Ten laws govern us. I don’t need to recite them. I feel them every time my fingers itch to write.

There’s no faster way to earn a citation than carving your own words into something meant to last.

“That will be a productive use of your time.”

The twitch at the corner of her lips is enough to let me know she won’t recite anything tonight. Her gaze drifts to the concrete floor as she asks, “Eve, what assignment do you think you’ll be given?”

She’s not interested in the assignment. “Maz, no matter what position I get, I’ll still tell you stories.”

She looks up. Her eyes glisten with a tear that hasn’t fallen. “You promise?”

“Promise.”

Her eyes drift down to my productivity watch, and she notices the orange face. “What’s orange mean?” She asks as she tilts her head to get a better view.

I nudge back my gray sleeve, revealing the message. “Since I’m taking the test, my productivity isn’t being measured today.”

A short chime signals that it’s time to board the train.

“I need to go,” I tell her. A strange sensation to pull her in and squeeze her like my mother used to do to me hits me in the chest.

In the last two minutes, I’ve felt the urge to break the law twice. I can feel the heat of the violation rising in my chest like a fever. It’s the PATH. This exam is a weight, and under that pressure, my mind is fracturing into these... irregularities. I need to focus. I need to be productive.

Maz gives me a brief smile and steps back, saying, “May your day be productive.”

“As well as you,” I say back.

I turn on my heel and move for the open door on the train. It’s a short ride across the city to the Central building.

Everyone in Elm takes their exams there. Along with any other official business. There’s only two times I can think of when going there is a good day. To take your exam. And to apply for a family license.

My productivity watch is a comforting orange glow. I’ve done everything right today. I’ve been polite. I’ve kept my distance. I’ve ignored the boy.

My finger twitches against my leg, tracing a shape I refuse to name. I ignore that, too.

“Today will be a productive day,” I whisper.

Current Cover Design

In the hyper-regulated, sterile society of Harmony, absolute obedience is survival. Every citizen’s life is mathematically dictated by the PATH exam, a high-stakes test designed to eliminate human error, emotion, and creativity.

Eve Salt has a dangerous secret: an uncontrollable imagination and a hunger for forbidden words. When her PATH exam flags her for a rare, classified role as an Editor, she is tasked with sanitizing chaotic remnants of old-world history. But rewriting forbidden text only fuels her desire to find another way to live—a second road beneath the overgrowth.

Arlen Pepper is the model citizen. Cold, analytical, and fiercely loyal, he has just graduated at the top of his class to become a White Coat—the regime's ruthless enforcement. Driven to emulate the absolute productivity of his missing father, Arlen is handed a covert assignment: spy on a brilliant new trainee suspected of harboring deviant thoughts.

When their orbits collide on the wild, forbidden coastline of the Redwood District, the rigid lines of their world begin to fracture. As Eve risks everything to uncover a truth worth writing down, Arlen must decide if his duty is to protect the perfect order of Harmony... or the dangerous girl determined to break it.

Please note this story is still in it's early stages, and is subject to change.

ON HOLD

Stories that are currently shelved until further notice

Sync'd - After War

This project is to be set 20 years after the end of Sync'd Reclaim. As of now, this project will be put on hold to focus on Fall of a Legend. After spending so much time in the Sync'd universe I need step back from it. The story does have a rough outline, along with several rough first draft chapters. Some day I will revisit it.

A follow up to Lunareth and Solterris

The Veil of Two Crowns is a follow up to Lunareth, just not the one I've been planning. I do plan to return with Scarlett and Freya as the leads. Time will tell.

The 'spicy' story

I'm not sure if I will ever finish this one. Those that know, know. Those who don't. You shouldn't want to.