Pigment of Bone
In the monochrome city of Grisaille, color is the ultimate narcotic. And the ultimate weapon.
Tallis is a Pigment-Hunter. In a world where natural color has been erased, she scrapes a living scavenging the toxic Mineral Wastelands for the raw materials the Art Guilds crave. She is cynical, hardened, and possesses a dangerous secret: she is achromatopsic. In a society enslaved by the hypnotic allure of manufactured hues, her colorblindness makes her the only person immune to the city's illusions. She sees the world as it truly is-grey, dying, and brutal.
Xaven is a Canvas. He is the masterpiece of the High Artisan, a man bred with translucent skin to display the "Living Inks" that shift and breathe across his body. He is breathtakingly beautiful, undeniably lethal, and strictly forbidden. The ink in his veins is a cocktail of heavy metals and ancient poisons; to touch him is to court death.
When Tallis is hired to smuggle Xaven out of the Palace before his "Final Varnish"-a ritual that will seal him as a statue forever-she finds herself trapped with a man she literally cannot touch.
As they navigate the deadly wastelands, the dynamic shifts. Xaven is fascinated by the hunter who looks at him without greed, the only woman who sees the man beneath the art. But the ink on his skin is not just decoration; it is a map to the lost "Prism Heart," and it is killing him to keep its secret.
Now, Tallis must choose: save the source of all color and doom Xaven, or let the world fade to black to save the monster she has learned to love.
He is a work of art painted in poison. She is the only one who sees the cracks.
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