Rikja

In the western village of Daligur, being Rikja, an elemental manipulator feared in folklore, is punishable by death. Eighteen-year-old Alys has spent her life hiding her forbidden magic until a moment of panic costs her the life of her best friend and forces her to flee her home. A chance encounter leads her to Wilford Academy, a hidden refuge for Rikja from across the kingdom, where persecuted Western students are trained alongside privileged Eastern elites tied to the Crown.

As Alys struggles to control her powers, she realises the academy exists not to protect Western Rikja but to control them. Her hunger for mastery and recognition deepens when she finds a mysterious bracelet that houses the ghost of a powerful Rikja, executed by the royal family, who offers her the strength the academy denies her. But power comes at a cost. As Alys grows stronger, she is pulled into escalating conflict with the royal family and a rival princess whose bloodline places her directly in Alys’s path. When Alys uncovers the true source of the kingdom’s prosperity, she must decide whether justice is worth losing herself, and maybe even her life.