Every musician learns to wield magic to manipulate the audience’s emotions, but some are better at using it than others. When aspiring musician Suyan enrolls at a prestigious music program, the same program that her genius sister graduated from two years ago, she finds that her skills don’t measure up. Not to her more competitive peers, and certainly not to the sky-high expectations set by her professors.

Her first week is filled with embarrassment – she messes up in her placement audition, gets the worst position in the worst ensemble, and makes a fool of herself in front of her classmates. Like sand, her dreams of succeeding in the industry start to slip between her fingers. So when Yue, a dashing and mysterious older student, offers Suyan a device that can amplify her magical ability, it’s impossible for her to say no.

At first, the device is only a crutch to help Suyan mend her tattered reputation. But a taste of success makes failure seem more bitter and, soon, the device becomes an inseparable part of Suyan’s life. Yue urges her to stop while she still can, but the hallucination of a masked maestro haunts her every step and encourages her to keep using the device in her obsessive pursuit of musical perfection. And as Suyan begins to lose her tenuous grasp on reality, she must decide if the promise of glory is worth her sanity.

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Unofficial cover art by @sakuraartist (Instagram)