WINTER EMBER (2023)

Arthur is a man stripped of his past, tortured, and forced to escape into isolation. Thought to be dead, he returns eight years later a changed man, disfigured, seeking answers and pursuing revenge.

Arthur's personal quest for revenge has to be put aside because the scars from his brutal attack continue to inflict pain on him. In order to ease his suffering, he has to pay a price that could cost him the last of his humanity.

On Arthur's latest mission, he comes across the term uttered by his victim: "Greater Heaven." Arthur's father said the same thing before he was killed by his attackers on that faithful night. Arthur starts to ponder what if anything does his victim and his late father share in common. And were their fates connected by Arthur's benefactor? The "Greater Heaven" may be just the motivation Arthur needs to redirect his goals in life.

A duty is a commitment and expectation to perform some action in general or when certain circumstances arise. Arthur's duties to steal and kill are created by a need to survive from his scars. The Maiden of Grayfern's duties to agree to an arranged marriage are created by a system of socialite culture. One faithful day, the tasks of their duties enable them to meet each other. After their encounter, can they carry out their duties when they lost the desire to do so?

Arthur now realizes that as a servant to his benefactor and his pain-killing drugs, he's become something he didn't like. He became a man who no longer had a sense of himself and who he was. He was an animal and a caricature of humanity; a monster inside and out. But is it too late for him to make a change or do drugs compel him to embrace his enslavement?