The Candle Blower

#Dark Fantasy #Subverting the Tropes #Mystery #Unconventional Good-for-Nothing #Candlelight and Ashes #Vast Worldbuilding

People are the lamps, flesh and blood the wicks. Nine tiers of candles burn all living things to ash.

The boy Si You collects bodies at mass graves. Born with the Nine Apertures of the Silent Body, he cannot light the heart-candle, yet can devour candle flames. He is the last “Lamp Keeper” on the flower-tenders' list of Xuanyuan, and the heir awaited for a thousand years by the Eighth Generation Candle Blower.

When twin lotuses bloom in the soil of human hearts, and the Red Lotus Empress awakens inside a young girl, Si You discovers that the most terrifying thing in this world isn't being set alight. It's that he was born to blow out every single lamp.