Lyla's life is planned. In a few months, she'll be leaving her stifling small village and the vicious rumors that have marked her as unsuitable to be anyone's wife, for the endless opportunities of the large port city of Balast. There she will finish her training as a magical healer, join an adventuring team, and see the world beyond the mountainous valleys of the High Passes that she's lived in her whole life.

Then a tragedy strikes.

Lyla doesn't know the secret that the soldier who saved her life is keeping from her. Worse yet, she doesn't know that he accidentally bound himself to her when he saved her life and that without her he will slowly lose his mind. What she does know is that her parents, the village elders, and even her best friend, are falling all over themselves to marry her off to this nearly perfect stranger with far too many muscles for her to take him seriously.

Can she escape this unexpected marriage that is messing up her plans for greatness? Will she even want to? Or will this be exactly the kind of adventure she was hoping for all along?





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Empire of Man - Book 1: The First Empress

Aside from answering a few questions about the geography, Lyla really wasn’t sure why she was sitting at the campfire ladling stew into steel mugs for soldiers. This was not her job. She was an apprentice healer. Her place was with old Reanne reviewing the study material for the Temple of the Healer exam. 


And, no, she was not getting ahead of herself as some people might imply. Thank you very much, mother, father, and every other person in this awful village. Reanne had already taken Lyla’s magical studies as far as she had the ability to. Lyla could mend small wounds with her magic and with larger ones she could stop bleeding while they were stitched closed. Between Reanna and Lyla, no one in this village had been forced to struggle through a Winter illness in years. 


Chapter 31 - In The Traditions of Your People