The Sojourn of Presence
Presence stories follow characters that have special relationships to places.
AI
Penniless and evading the thieves’ guild, Mista needs the treasure of a lost city to return to her wealthy family with a fortune she earned herself. Renzo can find it—but the charming, reckless surveyor needs the one thief who can resist him well enough to keep his fingers out of his own wallet; together they can reach the city, if they can also keep their hands off each other while her ex and the guild close in—and if Mista can stop treating love as another treasure she has to earn.
Shaping the plot
- Ideating — complete
- Planning — active
- Outlining — future
- Drafting — future
- Editing — future
- Querying — future
Setting
Greater Salas is a sun-struck region of inland trade roads and crowded ports, where war along the coast has pushed more wealth—and more danger—onto the routes between cities. Beneath Salas lie the catacombs of the ancient empire that once ruled the region. Their passages now house the largest black market in the known world, an open secret that shapes every bargain made aboveground. From Salas, Mista and Renzo travel through Rocaquieta and Los Ojos toward Puerto Salazar, where merchants, smugglers, thieves, and consular law compete to decide what—and who—may pass from land to sea.
Plot
After Mista lands on the wrong side of the law in Salas, Renzo rescues her and keeps the authorities at bay with nothing but his reputation. In exchange, she becomes his bodyguard and accountant as they cross Greater Salas to Puerto Salazar, where they pull a heist to buy passage in search of a lost city’s treasure map. Consular Marshal Isabella Castillo pursues them through the law while the thieves’ guild closes in through the black market, repeatedly turning their escape into another contest. When a fight with Renzo leads Mista to leave his protection, Castillo and the guild join forces to capture her. Mista struggles to believe he will come back for her. He does—and reveals the dangerous truth behind the reputation that has protected them both.
Cast
Mistralina Stellari. Known to the thieves' guild as Mist and to Renzo as Mista—she always finds a way to balance a ledger. Once the accountant for her wealthy family’s maritime venture house, she is now a penniless thief evading the guild that refuses to let her go. Practical, prepared, and always thinking several moves ahead, she accounts for every coin, favor, and kindness—because accepting anything she cannot repay might give someone else a claim on her. She wants the treasure of a lost city so she can return home with a fortune she earned herself. Renzo, who gives freely and plans nothing, is the first person whose kindness refuses to stay on the ledger.
Renzo. Renzo becomes whatever someone needs in the moment, and every version of him is sincere. A charming, reckless surveyor who has crossed the known world, he can read a room, absorb a culture, and turn its rules until escape looks effortless. He can find impossible places and convince strangers that his company is legal tender—but plans drive him mad, and money passes through his hands as quickly as opportunity. He wants to be satisfied staying in the same place twice. To build a future with Mista, he must learn that being perfect for the present is not the same as becoming someone who will still be there tomorrow.
Isabella Castillo. Consular Marshal Isabella Castillo does not need to believe in the law to enforce it better than anyone else. Armed with warrants honored from port to port, she follows Mista across sovereign borders and sees through Renzo’s improvisations whenever he tries to shelter her. Her former affair with Renzo is irrelevant to Isabella; apprehending Mista is simply the job in front of her, and Isabella likes to do a job exceptionally well. Her effortless familiarity with Renzo nevertheless unsettles Mista, who resents how thoroughly Isabella already knows the man she is only beginning to understand.
Averno. Averno has spent his life believing love and wealth are things a man survives by possessing. Known only by the codename assigned to him by the thieves’ guild, he once promised Mista they would find the lost city together—then destroyed their relationship by cheating on her. Now he believes its treasure can buy his freedom from the guild and win her back, even though he knows she considers his betrayal irreparable. When Mista refuses him, Averno decides Renzo must be the obstacle and uses the guild’s reach against them, treating Mista’s labor, freedom, and future as though they were still his to bargain with.
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