THE PROVING DECK
Every four years, the deep-space transit hub known as the Circuit repurposes its heavy infrastructure for the Provings—a brutal athletic gauntlet of physical extremes.
Trainer Noral has spent years preparing Sera to conquer the crushing hydrostatic chambers and blind maintenance shafts. But when an invisible, systematic sabotage begins to physically degrade the competitors, it becomes clear this is no longer just a test of endurance.
As the stakes shift from competition to survival, Noral and Sera realize they aren't just fighting the course—they are fighting the very structure of the Circuit itself.
STAGING
Dr. Lorelei Vesler is a senior architect at the corporate Monolith of New Carthage. When she recruits Cecily Finch—a brilliant, self-taught coder from the city's slums—she bypasses corporate protocol to take the young woman under her wing, isolating her in a private staging environment to nurture her genius.
But as Cecily begins mapping the city's old secrets, "phantom glitches" start appearing across the network. Security feeds skip. The climate controls fluctuate. As Cecily's paranoia grows, Lorelei must decide exactly how far she is willing to go to protect her fragile protege from the auditors closing in.
Told through Lorelei's intimate, maternal logs, Staging is a taut psychological thriller about trust, paranoia, and the lengths a mentor will go to protect her own.