The Paper Magician

Ceony Twill finishes first in her class at the Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined, yet her assignment is not the one she wanted. She hoped to work with metal. Instead she is sent to the cottage of Magician Emery Thane to apprentice in paper magic, and she arrives heartbroken.

The choice is permanent. Once a magician is bonded to a material, that material becomes the only magic she can ever use. Ceony must make peace with paper for good.

Thane turns out to be strange but kind, and his lessons surprise her. She learns to animate paper creatures, to bring stories to life as ghostly images, and even to read fortunes. The magic is more wondrous than she expected.

Then she meets its opposite. An Excisioner, a practitioner of dark flesh magic, breaks into the cottage and tears Thane's heart from his chest. To save him, Ceony has to confront the intruder and travel into the chambers of the heart itself, still beating. What she finds there shows her who her teacher really is. Dark danger and whimsy sit side by side.