Publication Date
5-2024
Advisor(s) - Committee Chair
David Bell, Nancy Dinan, Fabian Alvarez
Degree Program
Department of English
Degree Type
Master of Fine Arts
Abstract
Over 100 years ago, mutually assured destruction finally closed the chapter on humanity’s golden age. A pocket of survivors founded Zlatosk, a lawless city built within the walls of a bomb crater-- the very bomb that ended the final war and turned life as we know it to dust.
Then a new type of life emerged: Zlatoskans born with small powers, crafts, that make them desirable artisans and fighters. Nadia Zoldak is the ugly shadow of these gifted children. She has inherited her mother’s psychic ability, one her mother was murdered for possessing. Distrusted even by other crafters, Nadia is forced to hide her power for a chance at survival and, orphaned and penniless, those chances aren’t in her favor to begin with. When Nadia learns her mother’s killer is alive and well, she vows to exact her revenge by any means necessary.
Unaware that her world could get any darker, Nadia plunges into the merciless underbelly of her district, the Second Ring, where gang warfare threatens to tear the whole city apart. In order to avenge her mother, Nadia must decide who to trust: her best friend who has joined their lifelong enemies for a paycheck, or a gang leader with a psychic craft so terrifying it just might get her face-to-face with her mother’s killer.
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities | Creative Writing | Fiction
Recommended Citation
Nezelek, Katherine, "THE SECOND RING" (2024). Masters Theses & Specialist Projects. Paper 3742.
https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/3742