Wezley
The Last Well of Zarathen
A war fought not for land, but for the right to drink.
The massive, impenetrable city of Zarathen is the final bastion against the "White Rime," an ecological blight that has poisoned the land and turned the mighty Nakrith River into a toxic, metallic sludge. Inside the walls, the ruthless Lord Khesh seizes control, knowing that the city's only true defense is its dwindling supply of clean water.
Their desperate existence is shattered by the arrival of General Vykir and his vast, exhausted army. Vykir is not seeking conquest; he is leading an army of refugees, their families dying of thirst and sickness, and Zarathen's clean cisterns are their last hope for survival
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As Vykir launches a relentless siege-a war of attrition fought with the fury of trapped animals-Khesh is forced to abandon all honor. He relies on Shem, a former slave and engineer who knows the city's hidden tunnels, to root out internal traitors and protect Zarathen's vulnerable underbelly.
The conflict culminates in a devastating, high-stakes moral compromise: to save Zarathen, Khesh must destroy the very thing he fights for. He gambles everything on one agonizing choice: poisoning the city's own water supply and seizing Vykir's non-combatant families as leverage.
The Last Well of Zarathen is a grim tale of survival where the cost of victory is paid in moral debt, forcing a society to choose between its soul and its survival. When the walls hold, who becomes the monster-the invader driven by hunger, or the defender willing to commit atrocities to survive?