[Royal Road Magazine June 2024 Entry]

An elderly woman's compassion leads her to an unthinkable act - sheltering one of the magical creatures her society reviles as monsters.

María risks everything to defy hatred and shelter the enemy infant. But this act of empathy forges an unprecedented bond across the human-goblin divide. As María and the precocious goblin form an unlikely friendship, they begin to unlock new wellsprings of power unlike anything in the humanity's sheltered history.

Their budding abilities may just provide the key to venturing beyond Greenview's crumbling boundaries and expanding the reaches of humanity and goblin-kind alike. But first, they'll have to overcome prejudices far more deeply rooted than even the city's decaying walls.

This rich tale of unlikely companionship across ancient divides asks what walls can be dismantled when compassion trumps fear of the unknown.