penance powder

Ashley Zimmer is the third-generation owner of A to Z Music, a brick and mortar store severely impacted by the dot-com boom. Refusing to call it quits, she see salvation in Pepper Alverez, the lonely woman who plays beautiful, haunting music every weekend without fail at a public piano in a neighborhood park. Everything would be alright if she could only get the crowds that gather at the park, into her store.<br><br>But the agreement to play in Ashley’s store during the winter months does not come without baggage. Pepper’s sad, minor key blues riffs and improvisations come from a long list of what she sees as her past sins. Playing the piano is the only way she knows to express those feelings and begin her atonement. It is her penance.<br><br>As Ashley begins to understand Pepper, she’s faced with a choice. Does she view their friendship as a temporary business agreement, giving Pepper a place to play while getting the store back on its feet, or is it something more. And when Pepper makes things less than easy, how far is Ashley willing to go? Will she take the risk, turning a tenuous friendship into something more?

Penance is a prison of eternal damnation for those who go against the will of the gods. Growing up in the slums of District Nine, Nacht was like every other individual his age, struggling to survive with what little he had and blaming the capital for it. But unlike everyone else, he had been lucky. He still had a mother who cared for him deeply and did everything she could to help him succeed. However, that all changed when his mother was offered up as a sacrifice to the capital to help bolster the number of Enlightened in their arsenal. The Enlightened were elite warriors who wielded supernatural powers and served their respected clan at the cost of sacrificing an individual for the opportunity to enter Penance and be bestowed or awakening a rune, the source of their profound power. Having been exposed to the worst of humanity due to the horrific execution of his mother, Nacht developed a relentless ambition to change the world—even if it was in his own unconventional way. After performing a disgraceful ritual, Nacht is sent into Penance, where he becomes one of the Enlightened and is bestowed a mysterious power along with an insidious punishment.

Genre: slice of life, romance, modern, friends Main Characters: Mckheila Mikasa: 26 years old, Mckheila has sides that she thinks she’s an introvert and a bit on a depressive side. A returning student. Gorgie Bumi “Grei”: 19 years old, a typical guy with a lot of peers surrounding him, happy-go-lucky as he may seem but he does work very hard in every way to get something out of his life. An orphan with a bright future. Chuna Ishii: 19 years old, fun, comfortable with everyone, easy to get along with, but second-guessing herself a lot. Fell in love with her gay childhood friend. Max Sakura: 19 years old, Max always felt that he was odd from the start and as society continues to accept oddballs like him, he does not see any problem in continuing his way of living. His gay and trying to clear his complicated feelings. Jun Ishii: 29 years old, Jun is the eldest in the family and he sees Chuna, his younger sister as his only family. His a family oriented guy, and romance is not a priority. Shin Churi: 27 years old, Shin is a good-looking man who gets ahead in life in every way. He sees his life as smooth sailing and gets anything when he truly puts his mind to it until he discovers how to love another man more than himself, even though he is a man himself.

The year is 2052 and the world has changed. Heroes have risen from the ashes of an Earth ravaged by war and now, humanity is thriving due to the presence of dungeons and magical abilities. The Guild controls every aspect of superhuman lives. The strong are revered and the weak are shunned. Among the many hopefuls is a woman doomed to die despite being a once-in a-millennium genius! "Why were you ever born into this world? Why can't you just die in a ditch somewhere?" "You should know your place. Live while keeping your head down and I might just let you survive." Read PENANCE: The Prologue here -> https://bit.ly/PENANCEPrologue

Dark times call for dark choices. My Choices. They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions, mine wasn't. However, Alex never made it to hell. Follow the story of a broken man as he pays the price for his sins in a new world. I do not own this cover.

Justice was finally served. Or so everyone believes. A decade after the coup, the Tower rules as a god. And humanity remains oblivious to their true place in the new world order. To maintain this fragile balance, each year, a handful of the "lucky" are chosen from the Pits to ascend the Tower. They were told it was a chance for penance, for ascension, to become Judges. But the Tower is not the paradise they painted it to be. Everything they taught Karim and his brothers in the Pits was a lie. Humans are not guilty. They are pawns in a larger game. The Tower is nothing but a gilded cage, and the prisoners are lambs led to slaughter, playthings for the Executioners to amuse themselves with in their cruel games. This year, Karim was among the chosen, to everyone’s shock. For a forgotten soldier buried alive in Pit Zero on a charge of treason he never committed, this was a golden ticket to revenge... or so he was told. To make matters worse, Karim has drawn the attention of the most dangerous players in this game, the Four Floor-Lords: The Bone Warden, the Scribe of Eyes, the Shackled Witness, and the Lord of Squad Zero. Each one more dangerous, more twisted, and more powerful than the last. Yet even among them, the Lords are divided, each with his own deadly ambition. Still, all of them have their eyes on him. They expect Karim to play their game, to line up like the others who bow at their feet, to break under their games. But Karim is not like the others. He refuses to bow. He will defy them all. Not because he is a hero. But because he killed the Reaper on the Second Floor — the entity the Tower forged from a former prisoner after they ripped out his mercy. The price: 18% of Karim’s mind. The reward: Fear is dead. And he climbs because his daughter is a hostage on the Fourth Floor, and the Minister who betrayed him waits there. Some sins are not forgiven. They are judged. And he is the next Judge.

Everyone said Kane adored me. That for me, he'd tame the wild rage of an Alpha, soften every growl, and sheath every claw. Ten years. Ten damn years of chasing, spoiling, protecting. I was convinced I’d be his Luna—his mate, his forever. But betrayal doesn’t come with a warning. It cuts sharp and deep. And it never just comes once. The first lie, I forgave. The second, I bled. The third? It broke something in me I’m not sure I’ll ever get back. And then came the words that snapped the last thread holding me together. "Julia, can't you just stop being so difficult? Stop acting like the world revolves around you." That was when I knew. The man who once walked through fire for me…Had turned into the very beast I needed saving from. The love I thought I had—it wasn’t love. It was a gilded cage, pretty from the outside, but still a prison. And if I was ever going to be free, I'd have to be the one to smash it open. Even if it meant setting the wolf on fire with it.

Her life flashed before her eyes to the happiest years of her life. They had a horrible childhood that would have broken even the strongest people but they survived. They grew up in a world plagued by war, famine, and greed and they chose two destines that pit them against each other. Both decisions came at the cost of the most precious thing to them both but they knew each other so well that both knew that neither would stop until they had succeeded. The woman caressed the man's face with her bloodied hand. "Was this really the right choice?"

Sophie Wexler transmigrated into a novel about The Galaxy, becoming the vicious, F-rank Healer-class cannon fodder. The original owner constantly caused trouble and made things difficult for the female lead, earning her the hatred of the entire internet. Upon transmigrating and seeing that everything had been ruined by the original owner, Sophie's only thought was: "What kind of nightmare start is this?!" To escape the original owner's fate, Sophie Wexler worked diligently, conducted herself conscientiously, stayed away from the male and female leads, compensated the soldiers harmed by the original owner, and strove to be a model citizen of The Galaxy, absolutely refusing to be the cannon fodder 'offed' by the Imperial Marshal! Broke and powerless, Sophie also had to support a man who'd been innocently dragged into the original owner's mess. She had no choice but to hustle. She started live streaming, became a masked singer, and held concerts. At first, netizens were scornful: 【Tsk, how good can she possibly sound?】 Later, the netizens were forced to eat their words. 【Damn, that's so good I'm on my knees!】 【What the hell, the violent episode of my Disorder Period has actually been soothed?!】 【The toxins in my Spiritual Sea have actually been eliminated!】 Her live streams went viral, the masked singer became a huge sensation, and tickets for her concerts were snapped up across The Galaxy. Sophie was content, thinking, "This time, I must have finally escaped the original owner's fate, right?" But what do you know, the man I've been doting on and supporting is actually the Imperial Marshal?! --- One day, Yancey Forrest came home to find that the boisterous person who was always claiming to be good to him was gone. His eyes darkened. Provoke me and then think you can leave? After catching her, Yancey traced his fingertips along Sophie's neck, smiling gently. "Why run?" Sophie trembled. "You... you're the Imperial Marshal?" His identity exposed, Yancey Forrest took her hand and slowly placed it on his own neck ring. "You know I won't kill you, don't you?"

Stella Sterling, born into wealth, had always followed the rules. Jaded by the hypocrisy of high society, she suddenly had a whim one day to have an ordinary romance. Thus, a fabricated rumor that Stella Sterling had spent a fortune to hire a Matchmaker from a dating site to find her a partner quickly spread through her circles. Those on good terms with her teased and watched the fun. Those on bad terms with her waited to see her become a joke. Later, an employee from the dating website revealed, "The company was acquired with an investment from a Vicenzan tycoon, and the profile of a certain female member with the surname Sterling was hidden overnight." The public speculated wildly about the identities of the Vicenzan tycoon and the female member with the surname Sterling. - Later on, a candid street photo that was accidentally captured went viral. In the dense night of The Spire on Vesper Island— Beside a Benz, a handsome, composed, and dignified man lifted a striking beauty in a red dress with one arm, pressing her against the car door and lowering his head for a deep kiss. In the faint light and shadow, the woman's flowing hair was swept by the wind, wrapping around the man's finger, which wore a pinky ring. Like a footnote to a romance, and even more like a vintage film frame etched into the axis of time. Someone immediately dug up the man's identity based on clues from the photo. The eldest son of Vicenza's Rhodes Family—low-profile and inscrutable, cold and untamable, and also the powerful contemporary authority of The Vesper Circle. And the alluring, glamorous belle by his side was none other than Stella Sterling. When the street photo spread to the mainland, everyone excitedly exclaimed: "The case is solved, the case is solved—"