Today is the day I begin my deep dive into the Fae and Alchemy series by Callie Hart, and I am excited. Two of the rumored three books are out so far—Quicksilver and Brimstone—and I’ve heard nothing but glowing things about this series. More specifically, I’ve heard some very yummy things about Kingfisher, but we’ll get there when we get there.

For now, let’s talk about this book. The physical copy is a brick—627 pages of epic fantasy goodness. My favorite kind of commitment.

Welcome to Zilvaren City

Zilvaren pronounced Zil‑var‑en is… bleak. Brutal. Oppressive. Ten out of Ten do not recommend.

A city under the crushing rule of Queen Madra and her guardians, who will kill you for just about any infraction. The two suns—Balea and Min—never set, water is rationed, and what little water exists is nasty enough to make you gag. 🤮

The city itself is shaped like a wheel, with walls acting as spokes to keep people separated in their wards.

We Start Fast: Saeris is Caught

Our FMC, Saeris (Sair‑iss), is introduced mid‑capture. She’s been caught stealing and this moment becomes the catalyst for everything that follows.

Here’s what we know about Saeris so far:

• Dark hair

• Blue eyes

• A traumatic past, including watching one of Madra’s guards slit her mother’s throat

• A reputation that precedes her, forcing her to give a false name

• And she’s from the quarantined third ward, supposedly plagued by an illness called the rattles

Except… the plague is a lie. The third ward is being systematically killed off, and no one outside it knows the truth.

When the guard realizes she’s from the third ward, he panics, drops his massive golden gauntlet in the dirt, and Saeris bolts with it. If she can fence it, she and her brother might finally have a chance at survival.

Elroy, the Forge, and Saeris’s “Magic”

Saeris works metals at the forge with Elroy, her mentor and father figure. He once forged weapons for rebels who tried to overthrow Madra.

Where his specialty is glass, hers is metal—and she works it with something more than skill.

Elroy knows her secret:

Saeris has some kind of magic with metal.

During her escape, we see it firsthand. As she climbs a 50‑meter wall with the heavy gauntlet, the quartz in the sand vibrates, the gold comes alive, and the gauntlet whispers:

“She sees us, she feels us.”

This isn’t new for her. Which raises so many questions.

Hayden, Carrion Swift, and a Bad Situation Getting Worse

Saeris and her 20‑year‑old brother Hayden are orphans, or at least I assume they are orphans, living wherever they can avoid being caught. Hayden looks nothing like Saeris, which makes me question her parentage. Do they share the same father?

We find Hayden outside The House of Kala, beaten yet again by Carrion Swift. Saeris and Carrion had a mind-blowing night together. According to Saeris, he’s uncommonly good in bed, but she swore never to let it happen again. Carrion is tall, auburn‑haired, charming, funny, and definitely not “common” either. He stands out in a crowd.

Hayden has gambled with their water money and lost it to Carrion. Saeris hands him the bag with the gauntlet and goes inside to retrieve what he lost.

But when she comes back out?

Hayden, and the gauntlet are gone.

Queen Madra: A Thousand Years of Terror

In chapter three, we learn Queen Madra has ruled for over a thousand years. She’s human. So… how?

Saeris races toward The Mirage, the direction she thinks Hayden went, and finds thirty of Madra’s guards cornering him. He’s holding the gauntlet.

She tries to take the blame, but it doesn’t matter. The only way to save him is to fight and Saeris is incredible with a blade. Still, she’s eventually taken down and imprisoned.

The March to Madra

Captain Harron escorts her from the dungeons to the queen. Along the way, we learn the people of the third are rationed six ounces of water a day, and it’s filtered from sewage runoff through a grate that catches the “solids.” There’s a quick look of disgust on Harron’s face, which tells me even the guards don’t know how bad things really are.

Saeris delivers my favorite quote so far:

“We’ve been reduced to embers, yes, but the coals that lie beneath the ash of my ward are still hot enough to burn. Do you know much about metalwork, Captain? I do. It’s under the most unbearable conditions that the sharpest, most dangerous weapons are forged. And we are dangerous, Captain. She’s turned us all into weapons. That is why she won’t suffer my people to live.”

— Saeris Fane

The Hall of Mirrors, the Execution, and the Impossible

Madra is beautiful, golden, flawless—and absolutely unhinged. She questions Saeris about her fighting skills and insists the Fae must have taught her. This strikes Saeris as strange. In Zilvaren, the Fae are bedtime stories.

Madra orders Harron to execute Saeris slowly, to make her “sing” then wipe out the entire third ward—100,000 people.

The torture is on-page, brutal, and Harron is disturbingly calm as he talks her through it. He puts his sword through her gut, and twists. He puts a dagger through her shoulder. But just as he goes for another strike, the blade freezes inches from her body.

Saeris wills the metal in the blade to glow white‑hot. Melt. Crawl toward Harron.

With her dying breaths, she reaches the platform with the lever, which is actually a sword and pulls it out. She swings the sword and lands a blow on Harron. It’s not enough to kill him but, he feels it all the same. The platform liquefies into a pool of silver. From it rises Death, who asks for Madra.

Death places a long silver chain around Saeris’s neck and carries her into the pool.

A New World: Yvelia

Saeris wakes in a soft bed, freezing cold, surrounded by opulence. A woman named Everlayne arrives. She’s been at Saeris’s bedside taking care of her. She’s sweet, and kind, and Fae. She gives Saeris a full cup of clean, cold, fresh water. This s odd for Saeris. Water is more precious than gold, and here she is able to drink her fill and was offered more.

We learn:

• Saeris is a Fae name

• And Saeris is now in Yvelia (Ee‑vel‑ee‑ah), an entirely different world!

We also meet Renfis, who takes the pendant to return it to HIM (whoever that is). I already like Renfis even though he hasn’t said much.

Saeris is cleaned up and taken to meet Everlayne’s father, Belikon De Barra, King of the Yvelian Fae.

And that’s where Day 1 ends—Saeris in a new world, with everything and everyone she’s ever known left burning behind her.

The card of the day is The Tower: Reversed.

A fitting tone‑setter for these opening chapters: upheaval, revelation, and the moment before everything breaks. The Tower Reversed isn’t the explosion—it’s the tremor that warns you the foundations are already cracked. Saeris’s world is on the brink, and she’s about to be the spark that exposes every hidden fault line in Zilvaren City.

As we close out Day 1, these opening chapters of Quicksilver have already thrown us headfirst into Zilvaren’s brutality, Saeris’s resilience, and the first sparks of the magic simmering beneath her skin. From stolen gauntlets to impossible escapes, from Madra’s cruelty to the cold threshold of Yvelia, Saeris’s world has cracked wide open—and tomorrow, we dive into in chapters 7–12. Hopefully we’ll step deeper into the mysteries of the Fae, and the politics of Yvelia. I’d love for you to join me as this journey unfolds.

Before you go, I’m curious:

• What shocked you most about these early chapters

• Do you think Saeris’s “uncommon” traits hint at something bigger

• How do you feel about Queen Madra as an antagonist so far

Poll:

Who are you most intrigued by after chapters 1–6

• Saeris

• Hayden

• Carrion Swift

• Queen Madra

• Death (yes… him)

Can’t wait to dive into Day 2 with you.

Entering the World of Quicksilver