(Participant in the Royal Road January 2025 Community Magazine Contest) [SHE IS DEAD, BUT THE COLLECTOR GIVES HER LIFE.] The Fervent Indulgent are on a pillaging spree, led on by Beastmaster, father of mutant monsters. Kamali has been murdered by their kin. Yet before her soul can depart, a monster claims her. The Collector, thief of souls, has absorbed Kamali into his hivemind. She survives, but she is shackled, amongst an assortment of fallen spirits bound to his beck and call. Now she has little choice but to work with the abomination keeping her alive. Worse still, the Fervent Indulgent’s sweeping raids are far from over. Beastmaster has greater aspirations, and in the wake of his destruction, the Collector means to feast like a vulture. And yet, there seems to be a seed of goodness inside the fiend — a moral, human side to him that cares, deep down. A part that despises his own fallen nature. Perhaps Kamali can extract it from him. Or, failing that— She'll need to challenge his rule every step of the way.