Lorelle of the Dark

Lorelle is dying. To save Khyven the Unkillable she gave away half of her soul, and the missing piece is eating at her from within. She has only days left, and she means to use them to find Rhenn, the abducted queen of Usara.

She needs a mystic key to do it, and every search for one comes up empty. Then a dark elf arrives in Usara and says he holds exactly what she is after. His price is steep: she must follow him into the Great Noktum and bind herself to the Dark.

Lorelle agrees. She tells neither Khyven nor anyone else in her circle, and simply slips away. What waits for her is a land of danger and betrayal, where nobody's word can be trusted for long.

Two open questions hang over the journey for most of its length. It is unclear whether the dark elf will really bring her to the key, or whether she has made herself a piece in someone else's war for Noksonon. This is fantasy with a ticking clock and a lone heroine, and the tension comes from not knowing who is using whom.