The Unordinary Path: Ash & Earth
Some choices lead us down a path we never knew existed.Hallie Braam, the grown daughter of an innkeeper in old Austin, was living an ordinary life until she met a new guest: a traveling apothecary. He speaks in riddles, watches everything, and carries an unsettling calm that draws Hallie in with a pull she's never known before. In the weeks preceding his arrival, the unsolved murder of a headless servant woman had left the streets brimming with suspicions.
As tensions in town rise, Hallie makes a series of unconventional and dangerous choices that push her beyond the bounds of what a well-mannered daughter should be. Cast out of her ordinary life, she's forced to reckon with the choices she's made. But what seems like the end may only be the beginning of something stranger. In this Gothic tale, Hallie must decide: stay and be what the world expects, or set fire to the life that tried to shape her.