“Many men have lived and died having made no impact upon this world. I am not one of those men. I shall not fade from existence. I will live forever in legend.”
-Valerious
Hector Valerious is the shrewdest, best dressed, most powerful sorcerer in Orilon. Or at least he thinks so. If you have never heard of him, you are not the first.
Countless cities have a bounty on his head because, for whatever reason, no one enjoys the company of a wandering mapmaker with a skill for the heretical and a proclivity for accidental pyromancy. He would like to settle down, but cannot. His feet are prodded ever forth by a fear that infects his every thought.
His fear of death.
Valerious is obsessed with unravelling the mystery behind immortality. He has travelled the world over searching for clues. He ventures to the castle of Pax Thivio when he hears that an ancient artifact connected to an immortal being is hidden there. However, when he arrives, he meets a lady who frusteratingly distracts him from his quest by offering something he may want more…
Lady Hadria, trapped in her father’s castle, grew up reading tales of adventure. In her favourite story, a fair maiden is taken by a vilainous highwayman but when he treats her with chivalry, she shows him love, warms his heart, and convinces him to become a hero. Clichéd, perhaps. But this tale gives her hope that she could escape the castle, the scheming lords, the endless line of self-obsessed suitors, and live her own adventure.
When a mysterious sorcerer breaks into Pax Thivio and steals an artifact from her father, Hadria confronts him. But this thief treats her with greater chivalry than any suitor. Hadria realises that he is the highwayman and she is the maiden. She is about to live her favourite tale. She is determined to play her part flawlessly.
But Valerious will not let love distract him from his quest…
“I was always looking outside myself for confidence. I never realised it comes from within.”
-Hadria
Hector Valerious is the story of an eccentric sorcerer’s fear of death, a lady’s escape from an unwilling betrothal, and the mystery of how a civil war, magical catastrophe, foreign emperor, ancient dragon, rebellious prince, and burned library form a web of lies that hide the secret behind immortality. Seemingly separate subplots of romance, politics, history, and humour form a web of connections where every subtle detail comes together to reveal that Valerious and Hadria’s lives have been shaped by a centuries-old cover-up and that their actions risk releasing a truth best lost to history.
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“None shall care about my death if I fail to prove that I had lived.”
-Valerious
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Sample Scenes
To Catch a Phantom
In this scene from book one, the two main characters meet for the first time. Hadria stealthily follows Valerious through the halls of the tower of Pax Thivio, thinking that he is a thief and that she should confront him. However, when she is finally ready to draw her sword and catch him in the act, things go horribly wrong. Just as she thinks she is about to die, she discovers he is not the criminal she thinks he is.
Escape the Mob
In this scene from book two, Hadria escapes an angry mob. She believes they are outraged by the bag of flour she “stole,” when in fact, Valerious’s unorthodox mischief is to blame.