An Ember in the Ashes

the long version

In the Martial Empire, is it the soldier or the slave who's truly free?Laia is a Scholar living under the brutal rule of the Martial Empire. When her brother is arrested for treason, Laia goes undercover as a slave at the empire's greatest military academy in exchange for assistance from other Scholars who claim that they will help to save her brother from execution. At the academy, Laia meets Elias, the academy's finest soldierand secretly, its most unwilling. Elias is considering deserting the