A Broken Blade

The first installment in The Halfling Saga is set in the fantasy kingdom of Elverath, where King Aemon has ruled for centuries after waging the Blood Wars to exterminate the Elves, a non-magical race descended from the magical Fae. Under the Halfling Decree, all Halflings, people of mixed Mortal and Elvish blood identifiable by their amber-colored blood, are stripped of citizenship and made property of the Crown. The Dark Fae, a magical race with dwindling powers, live under a treaty in the western Faeland beyond the Burning Mountains. The Light Fae went extinct long ago.

Keera, a Halfling foundling with no memory of her parents, serves as King Aemon's Blade, his most skilled assassin and spy. She interrogates and kills a merchant trading secrets with a mysterious hooded figure called the Shadow but cannot learn his identity. At the capital, Koratha, the king redirects Keera to a more pressing concern: Lord Curringham, the kingdom's wealthiest harvest lord who controls most of its food supply and winvra (a magical plant whose berries can heal or poison), may be aligning with the Dark Fae. The king orders Keera to the city of Cereliath to investigate.

Keera is deeply conflicted. She has a severe alcohol addiction, drinking to suppress the guilt of killing innocents on the king's orders. She carries their names carved into her skin with a mage pen, arranged in patterns resembling Elven warrior armor. Her back bears scars carved by Crown Prince Damien during the Trials, the brutal tests Halfling initiates must pass to become Shades, the king's elite spies. Her only true connection is Gwyn, her young Halfling chambermaid, magically bound to the palace by an inherited life debt. Damien torments Gwyn specifically to hurt Keera.

In Cereliath, weeks of surveillance reveal no evidence that Curringham is dealing with the Dark Fae. However, Keera spots a hooded figure with an Elven-made blade meeting secretly with Curringham's assistant, Rylan Porter. She captures Rylan, who reveals he has been passing information to the Shadow's contacts, who ship food to Cereliath's starving people. Rylan challenges Keera with a question that echoes a promise she once made: Who will hold the king responsible? Keera kills Rylan and sends the Shadow a message requesting a rematch.

The Shadow appears at an abandoned temple. They fight until Keera's hood is knocked off, exposing her face. The Shadow freezes, murmurs that what he sees is not possible, and kisses her. An electric current surges through both of them. Keera tries to stab him mid-kiss, but he catches her wrist and escapes. Shaken, Keera vows to stop drinking until the Shadow is captured. At the Order, the Shades' training facility, she learns the king demands early Trials for dangerously undertrained initiates. Hildegard, the Bow, one of the Arsenal's senior officers, delays the Trials for five months and gives Keera winvra elixir to manage her withdrawal.

Before the full court, the king orders Keera to hunt the Shadow, and she announces she will target Aralinth, the Dark Fae capital. Prince Killian, the king's younger son by a Fae mistress, privately gives her a book of essays suggesting the Elves' account of history differs sharply from the Crown's. Keera crosses the Burning Mountains and finds a city with far more Halflings living freely than anyone in the kingdom knew. Lord Feron, Aralinth's Dark Fae lord, invites her to a ball and reveals the king has always tolerated Halflings in the Faeland to preserve the treaty. At the ball, Keera meets Nikolai, a flirtatious Halfling in Feron's circle who hints at a prior encounter, and Riven Numenthira, Feron's hostile Dark Fae nephew.

Encouraged by Dynara, a former courtesan who escaped to the Faeland and urges Keera to act on her desire to kill the king, Keera investigates Nikolai's apartment. The Shadow appears instead. They fight, and Keera pulls off his hood to reveal Riven. He admits he wants to end the entire Crown. Keera drops her weapons and offers an alliance, confessing she has wanted to kill the king for decades. They agree to share only what each needs to know. Keera eavesdrops as Riven, Nikolai, and Syrra, an ancient Elven warrior, debate her offer, then crashes through their window. She proposes blowing up the dam at Silstra, a major trade hub, to destroy the kingdom's canal system. The group agrees to attack at night and resolves to steal Lord Curringham's pendant key to access the explosive stores.

The arrival of Gerarda Vallaqar, the Arsenal's second-in-command and Keera's rival, in Aralinth forces the group to flee through the mountains. Keera and Riven gradually build trust. She discovers she can sense plants' emotions through his Fae magic, an ability impossible for an ordinary Halfling. A crisis erupts when Riven's followers leave Aralinth against orders and encounter two Shades. One Shade is killed; the other is captured but has seen too much to be released. Keera forces Riven to kill the survivor, insisting he carry the burden himself.

Overwhelmed by the deaths, Keera relapses into drinking at the town of Caerth. Syrra shares her own ancient grief, telling Keera that a broken blade can be mended. The group later fights traffickers, and Keera kills an unarmed man who has seen their faces. Riven delivers a public speech declaring full trust in Keera and the alliance. During quieter moments, Keera reveals she founded the Rose Road, an underground network of refuges for Halflings across the kingdom, fundamentally shifting Riven's understanding of her.

At the Harvest Ball in Cereliath, Keera and Riven enter disguised by glamour, a form of magical illusion, creating a spectacle to distract Curringham while they steal his pendant key. Keera slices the pendant's chain while Riven distracts Curringham with a kiss. Prince Killian unexpectedly appears and recognizes Keera through her disguise. She feeds him a constructed narrative, positioning herself as the only person who predicted the Shadow would target trade routes.

The group races to Silstra and detonates the dam. Nikolai is wounded by a poisoned arrow, and Keera's fuse line fails. She relights it at the center of the dam, knowing she cannot escape the blast radius. Riven fires a grappling arrow to create an escape route. Keera leaps off the dam carrying an unconscious Shade she refuses to leave behind. The Shade dies from the impact, but Keera survives with catastrophic injuries. Riven carries her to Rheih Talonseer, a Mage (a Mortal magic wielder), who discovers Keera was already healing herself, a power associated with Light Fae heritage. Rheih identifies Keera's silver eyes as the mark of the Light Fae, suggesting she may be part Fae.

During recovery, Riven sees Keera's scars and calls them beautiful. Keera tells him about Brenna, her lover and best friend at the Order, who made Keera promise they would destroy the Crown together. Damien identified them as a threat, arranged Brenna's death during the Trials, and carved scars into Keera's back. The name on Keera's forearm, the first she carved, is Brenna's. Riven vows to help bring down the king for Brenna's sake.

Their relationship turns romantic. At the capital, Prince Killian saves Keera from the king's fury by arguing she should command the entire Arsenal, positioning her to manipulate the spy network from within. She meets Riven at a hidden cavern for one intimate night before he departs on a secret mission. The next morning, Nikolai sedates and captures Keera. She wakes bound before Prince Killian, who reveals that he, not Riven, is the true mastermind behind the rebellion. Every mission was orchestrated by the prince, who claims he will dismantle the Crown entirely. Killian cuts her bindings and declares their shared purpose: killing his father.