[QCrit] (Crass) Dark Fantasy - THE LONELY COMPANIONS [90k words, v1]

Errona and her paintings haven’t seen a proper stage in months. She could blame many things for that, like her troupe’s failing equipment or the civil war growing in their homeland. But the greatest problem is her own mistake: she just ran them all into a Being, and most of the performers now possess the creature’s bizarre magic. They could create fantastic shows with their new agility and artistic tricks, but in the Southlands, wild sorcerers like themselves are killed, not celebrated.

They try to appear normal as they seek out a safe village for their next performance, but a group of magically trained Wardens trick them into revealing their powers and arrest them at once. They’re sentenced to be executed—even Breck, the troupe’s orator who seemingly missed out on magic. But as they’re led to their deaths, he reveals he can now bend unmagical folk to his will, and he convinces their executioners to turn on each other so they can escape and go into hiding.

Errona only wants to find safety away from the Wardens hunting them. Breck wants revenge, not just on their pursuers but everyone without magic, and he’s set on dragging their troupe and other wild sorcerers it encounters into his bloody war. She must stop his plans before they begin to spare everyone in the Southlands. If she can’t do that by turning his budding army against him, she’ll need to expose all the troupe’s magic to the world once more, risking death for her innocent partners and herself.

—

I have some hesitations about this first shot, but if I keep obsessing over them then I’ll never get other eyes to look at it. 

(One thing I will note: the full query, if this ever reaches the point of sending out, will mention that the story has a good bit of dry humor in it, hence the “crass” in the title.)