The Monster
Mender

Mae Thorne walked out of the Order of the Bright Veil three years ago. She is not going back.

In the village of Hollowbrook, on the soft and forgotten edge of the realm, she practises a kind of medicine the great healing schools refuse to teach. Because here is what those schools won't tell you: monster magic is bound to the soul. You cannot lance a wyvern's wing-rot if he is grieving. You cannot ease a vampire's hunger while she is still pretending she likes her work. For the creatures the world calls monsters, body and soul are the same wound.

Mae is the only healer in a thousand miles who will treat both.

She has a sarcastic goblin apprentice, a tea habit, a three-legged cat who runs the cottage with an iron paw, and a clientele that wouldn't be welcome at any other practice. She has built a quiet life and worked very hard for it.

Then a scarred man with a soft voice starts showing up at her door, always with an injured creature he claims he just found. He keeps coming back. The village keeps watching. And something old and slow is moving through the deep Wickwood, leaving wounds that go deeper than the body.

"For monsters, body and soul are the same wound."