A Forgery of Fate

Elizabeth Lim's novel follows Truyan "Tru" Saigas, a young art forger in the city of Gangsun on the continent of A'landi. The eldest of three sisters, Tru has a fortune-telling mother named Weina and a father, Arban, who is a Balardan trader whose distinctive blue hair marks him as a foreigner. When Tru is 13, Baba departs on a secretive voyage and is lost at sea. Five years later, Tru supports her struggling family by forging paintings with Gaari, a mysterious one-eyed old man who serves as her dealer and mentor. She also harbors a secret: She can paint visions of the future, an ability she has shared with no one.

Crisis strikes when Mama, who has a gambling addiction, reveals she owes an enormous debt to Madam Yargui, Gangsun's most feared crime lord. If the debt goes unpaid, Yargui will take Tru's middle sister, Falina. Tru paints through the night, surrendering to a vision, and produces a painting of a dragon with mismatched eyes rising from a storm. She takes the painting to Gaari, but Yargui's enforcer, Puhkan, attacks the restaurant. Gaari helps Tru escape, and her dragon scroll blows into the walled garden of a reclusive lord known as the Demon Prince, who gives Tru a jeweled ring worth enough to cover the debt, saying he will call on her later.

Tru delivers the ring to Puhkan, but he reveals that Gaari has been stabbed and thrown into a canal. Yargui's men capture Tru's family and force her into a gambling game with her sisters' lives at stake. When Tru enters a trance and paints a phoenix, a water spirit bursts from the painting and attacks Yargui's men. The spirit is Shanizhun, called Shani, a water demon bound to the ring. A carriage from the Demon Prince carries the family to safety.

At his estate, the Demon Prince removes his mask, revealing a face split in two: one side human, the other covered in silver-blue dragon scales. He is the dragon Tru painted. His name is Elangui Ta'ginan Yuwong, called Elang, a half dragon born of a dragon father and a human mother. Elang explains that his grandfather, Nazayun, the Dragon King and God of the Seas, banished him from Ai'long, the underwater dragon realm. The condition for his return is that he fall in love with a human and bring his bride to the realm. He asks Tru to pose as his wife. Shani explains Elang's curse: Nazayun took Elang's pearl, the source of a dragon's heart and power, in childhood. Without it, Elang cannot feel emotions or become a full dragon.

Elang reveals his true aim: He wants Tru's painting abilities to help him overthrow the Dragon King, though he withholds specifics about the weapon he intends to use. He also reveals that Baba's drawing was found in Nazayun's palace, suggesting Baba is a captive. Furious but desperate to find her father, Tru agrees. They marry in a small ceremony that includes tying a red string of fate around their wrists and descend through a gateway into Ai'long.

The Westerly Seas are ashen and cold. Yonsar Castle, Elang's hidden fortress, is staffed by talking turtles and loyal merfolk, including General Caisan, a suspicious military commander. Nazayun's patrol tests the marriage with mind-reading jellyfish and accepts it as genuine. At the castle, Tru studies under Shani, practicing painting Nazayun. When a devastating storm strikes, Tru ventures into the Western Fold, a dangerous chasm, to rescue Mailoh, the castle's chief turtle. There she encounters Nazayun's projection, who tempts her with information about Baba. Tru refuses to betray Elang and nearly freezes before he saves her.

Tru and Elang's relationship develops unevenly; she proposes friendship, and he rejects it. When Yonsar's defenses fail, they seek help from Queen Haidi of Nanhira, the merfolk realm. Haidi demands proof that their love is genuine, and Tru impulsively kisses Elang. During the kiss, she feels a heartbeat in his supposedly heartless chest. Haidi provides enchanted silk to protect Yonsar and reveals an ancient prophecy: A fated group called the Eight and a Half Immortals will forge a weapon to vanquish an unworthy god, and Nazayun believes Elang is the "half immortal."

Back at Yonsar, Tru discovers a hidden storeroom containing every painting she has ever made and realizes that Elang is Gaari, the mentor she believed dead. Elang confirms it: His birth name was Gaarin, and he spent three years in disguise developing her skills. He reveals the weapon he has withheld: the Scroll of Oblivion, an ancient artifact hidden in a black thread woven into their red wedding string. The Scroll erases anyone painted on its surface from existence, provided the portrait captures the subject in their final moment and the Painter physically touches them. Tru insists on seeing Nazayun in person to paint an accurate portrait.

They travel secretly to Jinsang, Ai'long's capital, where Tru sketches Nazayun during a public ceremony. The Dragon King punishes Haidi by transforming her into a monster, exactly as Tru foresaw. In the chaos, Shani reveals her true allegiance: She has been serving Nazayun all along, exposing Tru's prophetic visions and the Scroll's existence. Nazayun captures Tru and offers a deal: Paint Elang into Oblivion, and Baba will be freed. He revives Baba from a toy ship where he has been trapped as a painted figure for five years.

Tru feigns compliance but conceals a trick inside the portrait targeting Nazayun. Elang recognizes the deception during a farewell kiss. Caisan and the turtles storm the palace, and Shani, in a final act of hidden loyalty, forces Nazayun into his dragon form. The group escapes with Baba.

In Gangsun, Tru's family reunites with Baba after five years. Tru races to complete Nazayun's portrait on the Scroll. On the last day of the dragon year, Nazayun appears off Gangsun's coast and sets the city ablaze. Shani forces him into his true dragon form, and Tru activates the Scroll, sending the Dragon King into Oblivion. His enchantments begin reversing.

Elang collapses. Tru discovers the cruel truth of his curse: Nazayun hid Elang's pearl inside the heart of his true love, meaning only one of them can survive. Elang refuses to accept Tru's heart. She attempts to paint a new heart onto his chest, but the sun sets before she can finish. Elang tells Tru he loves her, then dissolves into water, leaving only his red string.

In the months that follow, Tru helps resettle Nazayun's former prisoners. Shani visits one last time, sharing restored memories that reveal Elang loved Tru from their earliest encounters and kept his distance to protect her. King Seryu'ginan, Elang's cousin, is crowned the new Dragon King. Tru declines his offer to live in Ai'long but refuses to build a memorial altar, still believing Elang will return.

Three years later, at the Lantern Festival, Tru finds a young man selling wildflowers by a canal. He is fully human, with gray eyes and no scales. It is Elang, reborn without his memories. He does not recognize Tru. She gives him a jade butterfly pendant he had once given her and the red string, then walks away in tears. Moments later, he chases after her, calling her name, though she never told it to him. Amid floating lanterns and blooming waterbells, the two are reunited. Elang does not remember their past but is irresistibly drawn to Tru. She tells him he will have to woo her again, and he asks if she fancies noodles. They kiss under the lanterns as the novel ends.