The Mace of Lowgate: 1

In the rain-slicked alleys of Lowgate, even the shadows have debts. For eight years, Mardek "Mace" Veyne has been the iron fist of the Thieves Guild, enforcing a brutal kind of peace among the canal-side taverns and brothels of the Ward. Clinging to a "three-warning rule," Mace is the only thing standing between order and total chaos. But the peace he has spent his life protecting is starting to crack. Imposters are walking Mace's rounds, wearing a crude imitation of the Guild's mark and leaving a trail of violence in their wake. When a fifteen-year-old girl is pulled from a canal -murdered to spark a bloody war between the Guild and a rival gang - Mace realizes he isn't just hunting common cutpurses. The trail leads from the filth of the docks to the pristine towers of the Highstones, where a forbidden power is at work: binding arithmetic. It is a magic that doesn't just record a debt - it tethers a man's very will and name to his contract, turning debtors into mindless instruments of a grand conspiracy. The Mace of Lowgate is a gritty fantasy noir where the truth is the ugliest thing a man can own, and order is a debt that can never be fully repaid.