Stormbound

For forty years, the Storm Guild has kept the sea calm. From the cliffs above the harbor city of Kessara, trained binders perform ritual magic that suppresses the storms threatening the shipping lanes and farmland that keep the city alive. The storms are not destroyed - only delayed. And every delay carries a cost. When apprentice binder Liora Vale begins to question what that cost truly is, she uncovers something the guild has carefully avoided confronting: the rituals that protect the city are slowly destroying the people who perform them. As storm season approaches and a massive system forms in the outer ocean, Liora discovers evidence of a forgotten method that could change everything - a way to disperse the cost across the entire city rather than sacrificing the lives of a few. But the guild leadership has reasons for keeping the current system. With the storm closing in and the truth threatening to fracture the institution that holds the sea at bay, Liora must decide whether exposing the truth will save the city - or doom it. Stormbound is a gripping fantasy novel about power, sacrifice, institutions, and the hidden price of stability.