Story Notes

A standalone, outside the Veyl universe but in a similar register — same kind of restraint, same kind of cost-driven magic, different world.

Exact to the Figure follows Vesper, a Collector in the fog-bound city of Marrow, where debts are paid in years rather than coin. Seven short chapters, posting over [the next week / however you want to phrase the cadence] — written for The Hero Chronicles Writing Contest 2026 (Supernatural Thriller / Action & Combat), but it stands on its own.

Content notes: violence, body horror (aging-related), themes of debt/exploitation. Nothing graphic, but the premise leans dark.

As always — thoughts welcome as it goes up, and happy to swap reads.

Summary

In Marrow, debts don't get paid in coin. They get paid in years — measured, collected, filed. Vesper does the collecting. Two fingers, a number, and it's done. Clean. Nothing taken that isn't owed. Tonight's job is different. The number is too large to belong to one ordinary debt. And the address is four streets from home. A story about precision, cost, and what happens when the ledger finally asks for something that can't be measured out cleanly. Exact to the Figure — a standalone short story, written for The Hero Chronicles Writing Contest 2026.

Genre: Fantasy/Thriller

Author: Emery_Voss

Status: Ongoing

Chapters: 8

Rating: 5.0 1 review

Age Rating: 16+

Title page

Exact to the Figure

a short story

by Emery Voss

Exact to the Figure

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations for the purpose of review.