David Writes Fantasy

The Necessary Bastard

Grimdark / Epic Fantasy – approx. 93,000 words

Iszra Morvain spent ten years proving she belonged at the empire’s most prestigious mage academy, despite being the only half-orc student ever admitted. When an explosion kills the imperial prince she secretly loved, Iszra is blamed for his death, imprisoned, tortured, and stripped of her magic.

Broken and disgraced, she returns to the brutal industrial city of Grimvik, where orc refugees flood the streets, and political tensions threaten to ignite into violence. But the attack that destroyed her life may have been part of a much larger conspiracy tied to forbidden magic and imperial power.

To uncover the truth about the prince’s death, and survive the forces hunting her, Iszra may have to become exactly what some already believe she is: a bastard brave enough to burn the old system down.