Crimson Smoke & Emerald Flame
High fantasy mysteries perfect for fans of J.R.R Tolkien and Arthur Conan Doyle. Share in the lore, people & magic of Heavenfall. 🧝♀️🎲
Crimson Smoke and the Emerald Flame Series
For years, the outcast Emerald Flame has traveled the world, solving mysteries that only a magic-wielder could unravel. But when his imaginary friend gains a mind of their own, both are forced to grapple with their identities as well as the enchanted forces working against them.
Crimson Smoke’s first conscious memory is of their appearance in the woods outside of town on a backwater island. Their only friend, the reclusive half-Jotunn investigator known as the Emerald Flame, plans to catch a thief in what he assumes will be a simple case. But when a government agent turns up dead, the pair soon find themselves on the hunt for much more dangerous prey.
As the clues in the dead man’s bed lead them deeper into the heart of the island, Crimson discovers there is more than one mystery to unravel. According to Emerald, Crimson is a being made of little more than light and magic, but the genderfluid “sidekick” believes they are much more than that. They make a bet: if Crimson can solve the mystery of the secretive village hidden in the highlands, Emerald will finally admit that Crimson is a person in their own right.
With each new clue, however, Crimson learns more about their creator’s tormented past and the history of the village itself. Emerald is keeping dark secrets of his own, and Crimson may have more in common with the murderer than either of them would have believed.
Every few nights, a swamp at the edge of civilization gives back its dead. When a victim returns to demand justice from beyond a watery grave, the renowned Emerald Flame douses himself in spirits, leaving his partner to wade through their pool of suspects alone.
Upper Bound is full of swindlers, frauds, and misanthropes: a lord who never fails to be the life of the party. A minstrel with more charisma than talent. The head of the city’s criminal underbelly. A vagrant who claims to be a landless king.
Crimson Smoke has never failed to puzzle out a mystery, but if they can’t solve one murder faster than they can cover up another, the lives of an entire town could be at stake.
And Crimson is starting to believe that the city’s restless dead aren’t the only thing that the bog has brought back to life.
As an unwanted infant, the Emerald Flame didn’t have an easy childhood, but he’s put all that behind him—at least until a Conjury investigation draws him back to the place where it all began. According to the rumors, a god walks among the faithful in the remote sanctuary of the Brotherhood of Guise, where the orphans of Kinmore are offered a safe haven. At last, Crimson Smoke will be able to get some answers about Emerald’s origins.
But safety is relative, and the deeper Crimson digs into the Brotherhood and their mentor’s shadowy past, the more they begin to suspect that the compound was never as safe as it seemed.
In the Brotherhood, the shadows have teeth, the walls have eyes, and even Emerald’s memories can’t be trusted. Something deadly is waiting in the ancient abbey. Something that no one but Crimson seems to see.
Kinmore is the larges city that Crimson Smoke has ever seen—and the most troubled. The king and his court feast in glittering palatial halls, but his subjects are left to fight their battles in the lower city. The Conjury's attempts to establish order seem to fail at every turn.
While the Emerald Flame matches wits with power-hungry nobles, shape-changing killers, and the occasional snake, Crimson is forced to question everything the thought they knew. Secrets lurk around every corner. Monsters abound.
And no one, not even Crimson, is truly innocent.
