Verdict of the Hollow

When anti-corruption investigator Lian Cross follows a bribe trail from the coastal Velara Desalination Project into the sealed mountain hamlet of Thornwood, she unknowingly steps into a courtroom governed by primal law. There, a council of elders enforces a brutal code, and the village executioner, Ryn, carries out their sentences with hollow obedience. But Ryn's numbness was forged in a childhood tragedy—the execution of his own father for defying the court. As Lian is captured and sentenced to death for "poisoning the old order," Ryn must confront the seed of sin planted in his youth and decide whether to remain a tool of indifference or shatter the cycle in one violent, redemptive act.