Witch of the Requiem

Decades ago, at the farthest edge of the known world, the immortal mage Zara raised an impassable barrier — sealing off the far north to contain a devastating threat. Her intention was to preserve life. The price of the continent's survival was the abandonment of an entire land and everyone left behind in it. Now feared as the Witch of the Requiem, she lives in the empire's shadows, hunting magical beasts for coin. Her only company is Syllee, a mana fairy with a razor-sharp tongue and an appetite that defies her size. That routine ends when Elend finds her. An imperial guard of the Red Cape and former disciple of Alaric — the legendary Celestial Hero — he's tracked her down to untangle a mystery in a decaying village on the northeastern frontier. The official mission: investigate the disappearance of a group of adventurers and a warlock, allegedly slaughtered by a werewolf. Forced to fight alongside her dead friend's protégé, Zara finds herself pulled into a new crusade against demons — and into something far more dangerous: a growing closeness with a man who sees her as more than the witch the world fears. As the secrets of the north begin to surface again, the tension between them sharpens, cutting against grief, guilt, and the scars of a war already lost. In a world where the villain defeated the hero and peace is nothing but a fragile lie, the Witch of the Requiem must decide if she's still capable of love — while confronting the weight of her own past before a new plague devours the continent.