False Meridian

In the Atlas, reality is ink. If it isn't on the map, it doesn't exist. Mercer is a Correctionist for the Cartography Guild. In the flawless, mapped city of Veridia, her purpose is absolute: identify "glitches"—illegal streets or phantom towns that defy the Great Map—and erase them. Armed with the Emerald Solvent, she is the cold, precise hand that keeps reality in order. Kaelo is a Copyright Trap. He lives in a "Phantom Settlement," a fake town Mercer drew herself to catch content thieves. He is made of paper and lies. He shouldn't breathe, he shouldn't bleed, and he definitely shouldn't have a soul. But when Mercer enters the fake town to delete her mistake, the trap snaps shut. Kaelo refuses to be erased. Trapped inside a dying settlement that is dissolving into white void, Mercer finds herself at the mercy of the man she created to die. But as the ink bleeds and the boundaries of the Atlas crumble, she realizes Kaelo isn't a glitch. He is the only thing in her world that feels real. Now, the Correctionist must decide: dissolve the anomaly to save her own sanity, or let the world burn to save the fiction she has fallen in love with. She drew him to be a trap. She never expected to get caught.