**2026 REALM AWARDS FINALIST**

"Full of strong female characters and nuanced magical properties that go beyond the standard fare of wizards and mages. A fresh spin on the genre and a promising launch of a new universe." - BlueInk Review

A matriarchal empire.
A princess with forbidden magic.
A mother who would kill to protect her own legacy.

Princess Tori has been hiding a dangerous secret since childhood: a forbidden elemental magic tied to the world's mythic past. If her mother, Empress Zinchen, discovers the truth, she would sentence Tori to death by saw.

And now that magic has started to break out.

Haunted by this threat, Tori flees into hidden lands-an ancient realm of ghost-flowers, sentient forests, and immortals from a half-remembered age. It is a place whose trials strip her of certainty and pride as she struggles to outrun what she is.

But when her mother's ambition threatens to destroy the people Tori loves, she must choose: suppress the power that could doom her, or embrace it and become the one thing her mother fears most:

Herself.

Whispers of the Elixir begins the Order of the Ember series-a slow-burn, character-driven epic of legacy, sacrifice, and the strength of a princess destined to rise from the shadows and claim her place in legend.

For readers who love the political intrigue of Andrea Stewart, the immersive worldbuilding of Patrick Rothfuss, and the emotional weight of M.L. Wang.