Bull Moon Rising

The first installment in the Royal Artifactual Guild series is set in a feudal fantasy world where power rests in magical artifacts excavated from the ruins of Old Prell, an ancient civilization buried beneath the earth over a thousand years ago. The Royal Artifactual Guild controls access to these ruins, located under the city of Vastwarren, and trains teams of five, called Fives, to retrieve artifacts sold to the noble holder families who govern the land under the king's authority.

Lady Aspeth Honori, sole heir to one of the oldest holder families, flees home in secret after discovering that her father, Lord Corin Honori, has gambled away every working artifact in their treasury. Without magical defenses, the hold and its people face conquest and execution if any rival discovers their vulnerability. Aspeth, who spent her isolated life studying Old Prellian history and teaching herself the ancient glyphs, plans to join the guild, find replacement artifacts, and save her family. She travels to Vastwarren with Gwenna, her maid and only friend, adopting the alias "Sparrow" and concealing her noble identity. She also carries a private wound: her former fiancé, Barnabus Chatworth, a holder's son, courted her only for her title and mocked her appearance behind her back.

At the guild's annual recruitment meeting, Guild Master Rooster publicly refuses Aspeth entry, declaring that women do not belong. During the confrontation she stumbles into Hawk, a Taurian—a bull-headed humanoid—guild member who serves as teaching assistant to Guild Master Magpie, the only woman ever to achieve guild master rank but now an alcoholic who has not produced a passing class in years. If Magpie's class fails again, she will lose her position, and Hawk will never repay the guild for the magical prosthetic hand they provided after a tunnel collapse cost him his real one. The Conquest Moon is also approaching, a once-every-five-years Taurian mating cycle that requires a willing partner.

That night, Lark, Magpie's niece, brings Aspeth and Gwenna to the dormitory and offers them spots in Magpie's fledgling class. The class also includes Mereden, a priestess who fled the Convent of Divine Silence, and Kipp, a slitherskin, a small lizard-like person who communicates only through gestures. When Hawk objects that the class lacks room for both women, Aspeth learns that female recruits require a chaperone's permission. She proposes a marriage of convenience: She gets her chaperone, and he gets a Conquest Moon partner. Hawk reluctantly agrees, and they wed the next morning at a temple of Asteria, the marriage goddess.

Training under Hawk proves punishing. He pushes the fledglings through marches with rock-laden packs, weapons drills, and obstacle courses, revealing Aspeth as the weakest member physically. Magpie remains drunk and absent. The team bonds during quiet evenings: Lark's mother worked in a brothel, making Magpie's guild success deeply meaningful to their family; Kipp dreams of becoming the first slitherskin in the guild. Hawk and Aspeth begin sharing a bed, and he gradually introduces her to physical intimacy, building trust before the Conquest Moon.

During an artifact identification exercise, Aspeth correctly identifies three genuine Prellian artifacts among fakes, drawing suspicion from Guild Master Tiercel. Hawk retrieves her, and she confesses that she taught herself Old Prellian glyphs as a child, supplemented later by a retired artificer tutor. Meanwhile, during a camping excursion led by a briefly sober Magpie, Gwenna spots Barnabus crossing a stream and warns Aspeth to hide. Aspeth avoids being identified, but Barnabus eventually tracks her down in Vastwarren and demands she marry him or he will expose her identity. She refuses. Hawk, alerted by Gwenna, finds Aspeth after the confrontation, but she will not reveal whom she met, and their relationship strains as he grows jealous.

Through contacts in the city, Hawk independently discovers that his wife is Lady Aspeth Honori. He confronts her, and Aspeth confesses everything: her father's gambling, Barnabus's threats, and the danger facing her people. Hawk is furious at the deception but conflicted by his deepening feelings.

Magpie leads the Five into the tunnels of the Everbelow, the subterranean ruins beneath Vastwarren, then abandons them at base camp to drink. Upon returning from an initial foray, the team finds their supplies sabotaged by rival guild members trying to drive the women out. On a second attempt, Gwenna takes up a dowsing rod Magpie provided and Hawk had dismissed as a fairy tale. It reacts powerfully to Gwenna's touch, guiding them to a sealed chamber containing a Prellian statue and a tomb robber's corpse. The team panics and flees. Gwenna secretly pockets an artifact ring from the body bearing Prellian glyphs that identify it as half of a linked pair, each half useless alone but together capable of great power.

Aspeth and her friends resolve to return for the matching ring. Magpie offers to help them descend, but once underground she reveals her true allegiance: She has been working with Barnabus, who uses a magical chalk artifact to trap the Five behind an impenetrable barrier. When Aspeth refuses to surrender the stolen ring, Barnabus fires an explosive bolt that collapses the tunnel. Magpie's betrayal stems from bitter pragmatism: Convinced the guild will never let her female students pass, she has accepted Barnabus's money. An old wound also drives her: A holder's heir once exploited her artifact-finding talents and then refused to marry her for lacking the right bloodline.

The Five survives the cave-in in a small pocket of rubble. Following Gwenna's dowsing, they fight off ratlings, aggressive tunnel creatures, and barricade themselves inside a Prellian family crypt. Inside a sarcophagus, they find a preserved noblewoman wearing the matching ring. Aspeth wrestles with taking it but decides her people's survival outweighs her guilt. When the two rings are joined, the inscription reveals their combined power: the creation of an impenetrable mist wall around a domain, exactly the defense Honori Hold needs.

Hawk, realizing the cave-in was staged, turns Magpie and Barnabus over to the guild. Though the Conquest Moon has fully risen and reduced his mind to primal instinct, he digs through the rubble and follows Aspeth's scent to the crypt. The rest of the Five flees as he breaks through the barricaded doors. Aspeth stays to honor her promise, and over several days they remain together as the rut runs its course, talking honestly between bouts about everything that has happened.

When the Conquest Moon passes, Aspeth is arrested and imprisoned for 18 days. The king travels to Vastwarren to adjudicate. Magpie is stripped of her rank and expelled permanently. Barnabus's family must forfeit eight artifacts to the crown and the guild. The Five is found guilty of attempted theft but credited with discovering multiple Greater Artifacts; they are made repeaters, eligible to re-enroll the following year. Aspeth alone is permanently banned from guild membership.

In a private audience, the king reveals he has sold the confiscated rings to Aspeth's father, who arrives with his new wife, Liatta, a shrewd former courtesan whose wealth and management skills will stabilize the hold. They have legitimized their seven-year-old son, Garoth, as the new heir, displacing Aspeth. Rather than resentment, Aspeth feels relief.

Hawk has been promoted to guild master in Magpie's place, the first Taurian to hold the rank, and his prosthetic debt has been waived. He confesses his love and asks Aspeth to remain his wife. Archivist Kestrel, a guild-adjacent scholar, offers Aspeth a position as an archivist outside the guild proper, studying and cataloging artifacts, a role perfectly suited to her scholarly gifts. The offer was facilitated by Rooster. Aspeth accepts, takes the bird name Sparrow, and embraces a life with a husband who loves her for herself and meaningful work among the artifacts of Old Prell.