Trespass & Tether

Possession is nine-tenths of the law. The last tenth will get you killed. In the mist-choked region of Barrow's End, the dead don't just rest; they travel. Invisible "Corpse Roads" crisscross the land, lethal highways for spirits that only a few can see. Veda is a Boundary Surveyor. Her life is ruled by maps, lines, and the heavy brass theodolite she uses to keep the living safe from the dead. She is precise, lawful, and tired. Brant is a Spite-Builder. An anarchist architect with a god complex, he builds jagged, impossible structures directly on the spectral lines to disrupt the flow of magic for profit. He is chaotic, arrogant, and legally untouchable. When Veda treks into the fog to serve Brant a final eviction notice, she walks into a trap—not of his making, but of the spirits he angered. A "Lockdown Event" triggers, sealing the doors and windows of his fortified tower. Now, the lawful surveyor and the criminal architect are trapped in a house under siege by a legion of screaming ghosts. Forced to rely on Brant's twisted knowledge of the building and Veda's mastery of spectral law, the lines between them begin to blur. As the wards fail and the air runs thin, Veda realizes that the most dangerous thing in the house isn't the dead trying to get in. It's the magnetic, ruinous pull of the man standing beside her in the dark. He built the house to keep the world out. He never expected to be locked in with her.