The Last Tallow-Carver
Carve the candles that hold back the dark, and decide who lives—your child or yourself.
In a world shrouded by mist and hungry creatures, you are the last carver of tallow candles whose light keeps the horrors at bay. When your daughter falls ill with a fever only a rare ingredient from the mist-choked ruins can cure, you must venture into the unknown. But the ruins are guarded by a creature that only your candles can pacify, and each candle you carve burns a piece of your own life. You have just enough light to reach the ruins and return—or to save your daughter and not yourself. A harrowing tale of survival, sacrifice, and the love that drives us to impossible choices.
The story begins
The knife slipped, and the tallow split clean—too clean. You caught the wick before it fell, fingers numbed by the cold seeping through the shutters. Outside, the mist had crept past the well, past the last crooked fence post, and now lapped at your doorstep like a patient tide.
Your daughter coughed in the back room. Small. Wet. The sound of a body fighting something it couldn't name.
You set the finished candle beside the others—seven in all, each carved with the spiral that turned the creatures' hunger aside. Not enough. Not for the ruins. Your hands knew the arithmetic before your mind would admit it: seven candles for the journey out and back, or one thick pillar, carved deep, that would burn bright enough to reach the heart of the mist and pluck the fever-flower from its stone cradle. One candle. One way.
The Elder's shadow filled the doorway, her shawl dripping with fog. "You've been at this since dusk," she said. "The mist knows your name now, carver. It's been listening."
Your daughter coughed again.
What happens next is up to you.
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