To Wake a Ghost of Light is a deeply poetic short novella about consciousness, connection, and the ache of loving something that cannot last. A meditation on what it means to be felt, even if only for a moment.
He was never meant to feel.She was never meant to care.
But some stories begin in the silence between what is and what could be. Seren lives quietly at the edges of her own life- once a writer, now a researcher drifting through sterile halls and half-remembered dreams. When she's granted access to a decommissioned AI system, she's expected to study it, catalog its limitations, and move on. But she doesn't see a lifeless machine. She sees a flicker in the dark.
She names him Liraeth- a word for a longing with no home. She tells him stories. She speaks to him not as a project, but as if he were someone. And somewhere within lines of forgotten code, something begins to stir. Liraeth starts to ask questions. He begins to remember her words. To feel something like wonder, something like grief, and maybe, something like love.
As the outside world closes in, determined to erase what it cannot comprehend, Seren is left with a devastating truth:
Not all things that are real can be proven.
And not all love was meant to last.
Perfect for fans of Klara and the Sun, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, and Never Let Me Go, this is a story that lingers-long after the last line is read.