Book 1
Mercy and Wards
Published: 2026-05-16
Mercy and Wards is the foundation of The Monk and the Witch Saga. It follows the first meeting of Ṛṣiśūra, a Mercy monk whose discipline is shaped by suffering, and Maeril Greenward, the Green Witch of Wyrm’s Crossing, whose food, wards, vigilance, and stubborn compassion create shelter at the edge of Baldur’s Gate.
Their bond begins not as prophecy or spectacle, but through practical acts of care: wounds tended, danger interrupted, thresholds protected, and people treated as worth saving before anyone explains why.
As Ṛṣi and Maeril learn to work together, the book reveals the first shape of the whole saga: mercy is stronger when it becomes something others can use. Through the writing of On the Thresholds, their care becomes thought, structure, and shared method.
Book 1 is therefore a beginning in the quietest and most important sense: two wounded people recognizing in one another a way to protect life without owning it, and beginning to build something that can last beyond one body, one threshold, or one good act.
Reading time
About 4 hours 30 minutes (65,795 words).
Download
Mercy and Wards is available as a free EPUB.
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