The Aurora Menauld Saga
The Aurora Menauld Saga is the first series in The Fables of Ciktar. Everything that happens before, after, or in alternate timelines, will all be connected to her story.
On the surface, The Aurora Menauld Saga is an adventure and slow-burn love story set in a fantasy world gradually evolving into a steampunk era. Beneath that, however, the series explores the human cost of empire, discrimination, and violence, holding a mirror to the systems that allow those evils to persist.
The Bavlangian Empire rules the world through fear and conquest, but the people it has broken, abandoned, and enslaved will become the very force that stands against it.
Aurora Menauld was never meant to be remarkable.
A half-elf in a human-dominated world. A woman in a society ruled by men. A healer in an age defined by war.
But even the smallest light erases the darkness around it. As Aurora quietly begins to help those forgotten by the empire, she discovers that compassion can be just as dangerous as rebellion, and far harder to silence.
Among those drawn to her is Ashes, a Bavlangian mercenary haunted by his past and disgusted by the empire his bloodline calls home. Though both carry deep scars, their growing bond reveals a painful truth: they cannot fix each other. Yet, together, they both learn how to allow themselves to heal.
Aurora will never wield weapons or give battlefield speeches. But what the empire truly fears is something far more dangerous: her refusal to remain invisible.
The Fables of Ciktar: The Aurora Menauld Saga is an adult fantasy steampunk saga spanning eight books.
The series combines moral complexity and political intrigue with a character-driven slow-burn romance, leading into an aspirational green flag love between two people who know what it means to be broken and want a place to be safe. It follows an unlikely healer whose compassion becomes a catalyst for rebellion in a world shaped by empire.
Book One: Empire’s Dawn
Ciktar needs heroes. They’ll have to make do with outcasts.
The Bavlangian Empire has spread fear and violence through the nations of Ciktar for years.
Only the western lands of Olia are left to oppose them.
Olia needs a fearless man to lead them. Olia needs a heroic man to fight for them.
A half-elf girl and an abandoned Bavlangian boy will have to do.
Aurora Menauld is a half-elf struggling to survive in a human town that would rather pretend she doesn’t exist.
Ashes is a Bavlangian outcast trying to build a life in a land that hates his people.
Two people, forgotten, discarded and unimportant, must face the challenging decision:
What’s stronger, their sense of justice, or their loneliness?
Book Two: Exodus
All they had to do was rescue a princess. How did it go this wrong?
That’s the question Aurora Menauld asks as a familiar group of mercenaries return to her town.
It was a simple mission: Find the princess, extract her from Bavlangian-occupied Zukula, get her to safety. Nothing should go astray.
Until everything that could have gone astray, did.
They don’t have a way home, but they have the princess.
They also have a caravan of refugees, growing by the day, that they had no intention or plan to take care of.
All of this could be manageable if Bavlangian forces weren’t only a day behind them.
Aurora had considered leaving her small town behind. With the arrival of the mercenaries, including the intriguing warrior, Ashes, that choice is about to be made for her.
Book Three: Flames of Rebellion
Making the world a better place for all means sacrifices for some.
This is the mantra Aurora Menauld repeats to herself with every shed tear and every hidden bruise.
While her friends fight battles across Ciktar, Aurora steps onto a different battlefield: politics.
And like any battlefield, this one demands sacrifices.
The hardest of all may be choosing between the friends who protect her, and the man who promises he can turn her dreams into reality; if she agrees to play by his rules.
As the world races toward a new age of technology and power, Aurora must decide what she’s willing to sacrifice to ensure the future includes everyone, not just those strong enough to seize it.
Book Four: Liberation
Freedom is worth fighting for, but nobody tells you how much it will cost.
Under the sweltering sun of the Gassis Islands, Ashes and the Jasimian Special Forces fight to break Bavlang’s chains and bring freedom to its people.
But war is unforgiving, and Ashes is learning the cruel truth of every suicide mission: not everyone comes home.
While the Gassis campaign is soaked in blood and sacrifice, Aurora Menauld fights a different battle that’s just as deadly.
As the friends she once stood beside risk their lives on distant battlefields, Aurora is left fighting to survive her own home.
She endures for the people who deserve justice.
But how long can a shattered person continue to fight, and will she ever know safety again?
Book Five: Vanguard
Nobody saw Aurora Menauld ever becoming a leader, especially not Aurora Menauld.
Once a broken woman ready to give up on everything, she now finds herself leading the nation of Jasimia.
For years, powerful men have promised they would unite Ciktar against the Bavlangian Empire.
Now Aurora is going to be the first to try.
But leading nations means more than winning battles.
She must unite rivals, disprove those who doubt her, and hold a fragile alliance together while knowing that every time the man she loves goes to battle, it could be the last time she sees him.
Aurora has fought for her survival.
She has fought for her place in this world.
Now the real fight begins.
Book Six: Twilight of an Empire
Love must be cherished in times of peace. It must be protected in times of war.
As the Bavlangian Empire begins to lose allies and territory, desperation drives them to a daring plan.
In a bold strike, imperial forces abduct the leader of Jasimia.
But Bavlang makes one critical mistake that Aurora can exploit:
They refuse to believe that a half-elf woman could be anything more than a puppet for a real ruler.
Now Ashes has a new mission:
Get Aurora out of Bavlang while he stays behind to buy her time to rally her allies.
And remember their anniversary.
Book Seven: The Reluctant Crown
Aurora Menauld finally has everything she fought for: love, purpose, and hope for the future.
A happy life.
A loving husband.
A precious daughter.
A circle of friends she once thought she would never have.
After years of war, she’s finally found her fairytale ending.
Until Shaz Gharache returns, determined to restore Bavlang’s lost glory.
Ashes must face his brother. Only one of them will survive.
And whatever the outcome, the world will have to learn how to move on.
Book Eight: The False King
This is not the world I wanted my little girl to grow up in.
Those words have haunted Aurora Menauld for twelve years.
She lost her husband.
Her daughter lost her father.
They both lost their rock.
Aurora never took a life. She only ever wanted to have peace.
But Shaz Gharache, the last son of Gharache, has left her with nothing to lose.
Now Aurora only wants to end the war for good.
No matter the cost.