Ember and Iron by Rowan Ashford
Ember and Iron by Rowan Ashford
English | 2026 | Sci-Fi & Fantasy
“The rabbits found ore.”
That should have been good news.
Instead, the mountain wakes.
Brynja Vane is 28, alone on a high-valley homestead, and she’s been running her late father’s forge for twelve years. She likes her life predictable: heat, hammer, bread in the oven, wood stacked before dusk.
Her only companions are Cinder, a mysterious cat familiar who “knows” metals better than she does, and two rabbits with an impossible talent—Ludde (bold) and Daisy (shy)—who can sniff out hidden ore deposits.
Then they lead her to a vein that shouldn’t exist: shimmering metal threaded with quiet magic.
The moment Brynja touches it, an ancient ward system her father secretly maintained stirs to life. The System begins to chime. Old tunnels feel wrong. And Brynja has to face the question she’s avoided since he died:
What was her father protecting—and why did he never tell her?
To stabilize the Outer Ward and keep her homestead safe, Brynja must forge smarter than she fights—unlocking recipes, learning cautious enchantments, upgrading her home piece by piece… and accepting help from the small valley community she’s kept at arm’s length.
Some legacies aren’t inherited. They’re forged.
