by: C.P. Silver
Series: Order of the Ember
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Release Date: October 14, 2025
Publisher: Yellow Thearch Enterprises
A matriarchal empire. A princess with forbidden magic. A mother who would kill to protect her own legacy.
As heir to the Min empire, Tori has spent her life under the iron will of her mother, Empress Zinchen—a sovereign determined to shape the world in her own image. But Tori has been hiding a dangerous secret: a forbidden elemental power tied to the world’s mythic past. If Zinchen discovers the truth, it will cost Tori her life.
Haunted by this threat, Tori flees into the hidden lands—an ancient realm of ghost-flowers, sentient forests, and immortals from a half-remembered age. But magic here is neither blessing nor curse—it is a reflection, a test, a force that shapes as much as it destroys. And as her trials progress, Tori is stripped of certainty and pride. To survive her mother’s ambition, she must use what she learns to suppress the power that could doom her—but in doing so, she risks losing the very future she was born to inherit.
Whispers of the Elixir begins the Order of the Ember series—a character-driven epic of legacy, sacrifice, and the strength of a princess destined to rise from the shadows and claim her place in legend.
In Whispers of the Elixir, you will find the political intrigue of Andrea Stewart, the mythic worldbuilding of Ken Liu, and the emotional resonance of M.L. Wang.
So I built one. A world ruled by women for thousands of years, where wise women guide and queens pass thrones to princesses. Where women write the laws, head families, devise military strategy. Where even the deity, Suro, is female.
And then I put my princess at the Tailu Spring Festival—where colorful floats drift by to the music of flutes, hand cymbals and drums, among dancers and food and sellers of trinkets—and made her watch a man get executed for wielding elemental magic. The same magic she's been hiding her entire life—while she stands above in ceremonial robes and says nothing.
Because in Arizan, oppression doesn't wear a gender. It wears power.
Two Worlds, One Impossible Choice
That festival represents Tori's world. Crispy grasshoppers fry in vats, served in rice-paper cones, and every float stops in the main square, its people pressing their foreheads to the stone. "Min is the empress, the empress is Min," they proclaim (in the spirit of Rome). And at the end, a criminal executed while the crowd cheers.
The Imperial Palace complex oversees it all from behind massive walls. Inside are opulent entertainment, lavish residences, extravagant gardens—but never ease. Tori performs what's expected. Someone is always watching.
But then she discovers another world.
Peach trees bloom year-round. Cottages nestle beside arched bridges. A gazebo floats on a tranquil watercourse surrounded by lotus blossoms. A three-story jade library—the Pavilion of Honorable Logograms—houses ancient wisdom. Immortal mentors impart knowledge no one outside can fathom. And in the forest beyond, a streaming wall of water lit with moonlight from within stretches on forever. This is Peach Blossom Grove, hidden in the Veil of Ayenashi—one of six sacred veils the ancestors left before ascending to the City of Celestial Jade in the heavens.
Peach Blossom Grove deals no judgment. No executions. Just honesty from people who've lived for centuries. Everybody's unique gifting expands into its fullest potential.
Here, wielding is cherished and trained. While in the rest of the empire, wielding elemental magic means death by saw.
Caught between these worlds, every choice Tori makes means betraying one place to survive in the other.
The Cost of Becoming
The empire teaches her to shrink and puff herself up—manipulative, proud, combative. Hide her forbidden wielding or be sawn in half. Peach Blossom Grove teaches her to diminish and expand—sincere, humble, willing to learn. Eventually she must decide which is her true self.
Then there's the romance that can't exist. A minor subplot, very slow burn, spanning the series, but highlighting the greater issues at stake. Custom dictates Tori take multiple lawful intimates—noblemen chosen for political alliances. Her future power depends on it. But no one has interested her until she met a warrior from a raider clan her people consider a plague. Choosing him would mean losing the credibility she needs to help the vulnerable. The world's structure makes it impossible.
Beyond Fantasy
I loved writing this brutal world with its mythology, social hierarchies, and unique races like the "Ants"—people with whiskers, scales, or bird feathers, treated as defects in a world that should celebrate diversity. And I adore its landscapes: spirit fruit that heals, sentient fire with a naughty streak, crystal streamlets where impossible conversations happen under starlight.
Readers who don't usually love fantasy tell me they got swept up in the strong female characters, the immersive world-building, the character complexity. Even if fantasy isn't your genre, I think you'll care about these places and the people fighting to survive in them.
The Journey Ahead
I built this world to explore female power in all its forms without stereotypes. And also because I needed to know what happens when the place that protects you also imprisons you, when the approved path suffocates who you are.
If you've ever felt like you had to choose between being safe and being yourself, this world will show you that the choice—and the transformation—is worth it.
A cool, fluid resistance hit her head, flowed down her spine, and clung to her clothes, as though she were walking through a curtain of water. Sounds muffled, apart from the tinkle of trickling droplets, and the earth felt slick beneath her feet.
A moment later, the sensation ended, and she checked her body, finding it dry. All that remained was a feeling of pleasant freshness. Master Banfay stood a few steps ahead, poking idly at the ground, and at the sight of him, relief flooded her—she was in!
She looked around and gaped—the forest burst with color. It was as though she had been viewing the world until now through a dull, gray-tinted pane, and had finally stepped into the open. The air, too, had a purity she had never imagined possible, and everything felt alive in a way that didn’t seem rational.
Elnora popped into sight, looking pale, and Master Banfay finally looked up from the ground.
“Welcome to the Veil of Ayenashi,” he said. “Be happy. Very few mortals ever set foot here.”
From then on, swaying trees bordered their path, along with bubbling fountains where birds bathed, splashing merrily. Lomi filled the place, shimmering and dancing, flashing and swooping, spinning feverishly inside shafts of sunlight.
A moment later, the sensation ended, and she checked her body, finding it dry. All that remained was a feeling of pleasant freshness. Master Banfay stood a few steps ahead, poking idly at the ground, and at the sight of him, relief flooded her—she was in!
She looked around and gaped—the forest burst with color. It was as though she had been viewing the world until now through a dull, gray-tinted pane, and had finally stepped into the open. The air, too, had a purity she had never imagined possible, and everything felt alive in a way that didn’t seem rational.
Elnora popped into sight, looking pale, and Master Banfay finally looked up from the ground.
“Welcome to the Veil of Ayenashi,” he said. “Be happy. Very few mortals ever set foot here.”
From then on, swaying trees bordered their path, along with bubbling fountains where birds bathed, splashing merrily. Lomi filled the place, shimmering and dancing, flashing and swooping, spinning feverishly inside shafts of sunlight.
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Raised in the Cayman Islands, she now lives in Europe. When not writing, she’s usually reading in a quiet nook or walking somewhere green, listening for the next story.
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