The Gembound: The Price of Keeping

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

The city fell. I tried to save him. That's when he started laughing. Yara survived Runewick's destruction with an ancient power fused to her ribs. It whispers. It hungers. It promises she'll never be helpless again—if she feeds it. Her first attempt to save someone creates a monster. Her second creates three more. By the time she learns to bind people properly—to make themneedher—she's already become something she doesn't recognize. Every choice is between horror and helplessness. Every servant she creates binds her tighter to the thing keeping her alive. Not a villain origin story. A survival story where survival has a price. Dark progression fantasy. Body horror transformations. Morally gray descent. Book 1/Volume 1 is complete. The story shifts from survival to kingdom-building.Book 2/Volume 2 is complete. The story continues with the kingdom building. ─────────────────────────────────────── What to expect: Morally gray protagonist making terrible choices for understandable reasonsBody horror transformations - learning through trial and error creates monstersServant binding mechanics - people transformed become dependent on purposeDark progression - power has real psychological and moral costsStats visible from Chapter 17 (LitRPG elements unlock mid-Book 1)Building a power base through bound servants NOT a power fantasy - every victory extracts a price What NOT to expect: Heroic protagonist or villain origin storyHaremEasy answers or moral shortcutsIsekai protagonist with cheat skillsGratuitous gore for shock value ─────────────────────────────────────── CONTENT WARNINGS: Body horror, transformation, morally gray protagonist,graphic violence, psychological trauma. Not a power fantasy. UPDATE SCHEDULE: Daily Monday thru Friday at 8:00 AM EST ─────────────────────────────────────── If you enjoy the story, please consider following, rating, and leaving areview. Your support helps others discover the series.For full disclosure, I do use Grammarly for editing.

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2025
Author: Taliorn

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.7/ 5.0
Followers: 386
Views: 57,265

Chapters(126 total)

What readers say about The Gembound: The Price of Keeping

“This is a story about the cost of power. The MC doesn’t get a golden finger that lets them have power, freedom, and the ability to sleep easily at night. I loved that this story made progression feel earned—if you’re looking for a book where every gain has…”
drinklotsofsodaRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“The Gembound opens with a haunting prologue that immediately sets a tone of unease. “The Thing That Lived” (prologue) works well as a narrative hook, establishing mystery before the story rewinds in Chapter 1 to ground events in a more human perspective. Th…”
Alan KurtRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

drinklotsofsodaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is a story about the cost of power. The MC doesn’t get a golden finger that lets them have power, freedom, and the ability to sleep easily at night. I loved that this story made progression feel earned—if you’re looking for a book where every gain has a price, this is for you.The prose is also excellent, the imagery is visceral (actually at times, it was maybetoogood at describing something horrific) and the grammar is pretty much without flaw. Read this if you want a dark fantasy that doesn’t pull punches.Now, for a slightly more detailed review.The Plot:Our MC is named Yara. She’s a street thief who was going about life normally when a catastrophe hits the city she lives in. Cultists cracked open an altar and released something ancient, causing green light to spread throughout the city, buildings to collapse, and monsters to emerge.Yara fights through the cultist temple and finds the source of the calamity: a green Gem. The Gem gives her power—but also demands that shefeedsit. As you can probably imagine, she does not feed it burgers and fries. (Don’t worry though, it’s not cannibalism either. No spoilers but it’s a cool system).What hooked me is how the story escalates. It starts as pure survival with Yara alone, injured, and starving. She’s trying to maintain morality while using the Gem to survive a collapsing society. It’s desperate and small scale. But after some failures, she learns what works and the scale expands. She starts building something with the Gem, gathering soldiers, a crew, and distribution. Eventually, she starts running parts of the city.So it’s not a repeated loop of just survival with stronger enemies. It’s increasing in scale and new—but it retains the survival tension that made it gripping to begin with.The MC:Yara is a compassionate person who gets a tool that forces her to abandon her compassion. She’s someone who learns from failure—the story constantly puts her into difficult situations and shows her internal conflicts. She tries
Alan KurtRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The Gembound opens with a haunting prologue that immediately sets a tone of unease. “The Thing That Lived” (prologue) works well as a narrative hook, establishing mystery before the story rewinds in Chapter 1 to ground events in a more human perspective. This structure gives the story a sense of inevitability, where readers know something is wrong long before the characters do, creating anticipation.
It might just be me, but when I read the story I feel the writer is confident and experienced in his art and it shows on the quality of the prose.
Chapters 2 and 3 steadily escalate tension through discovery. The introduction of the gem-related phenomena is handled carefully, with consequences hinted at before they’re fully revealed. Chapter 4 shifts the tone slightly, using “The Burned Man” to bring the abstract threat into sharper focus. Chapter 5 slows things down again, emphasizing atmosphere and implication over spectacle.
The style is deliberate. This works well for the story’s themes. Characters feel grounded and believable, reacting with caution and uncertainty rather than cookie-cutter cliches, which strengthens immersion.
From a grammar standpoint, the prose is clean and controlled, with strong sentence-level clarity.
Overall, this is a thoughtful, tension-driven story that turns very rewarding as you go through it. Have a look if you are into post-apocalyptic stories!
Zendar FrenkRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story is intense, emotional, and very vivid. From the opening scene, it immediately puts the reader into a moment of panic and tragedy, and it doesn’t let go. The descriptions are strong without being confusing, and the world feels dangerous, broken, and alive. The ruined city, the green light, and the strange magic all create a clear atmosphere of dread and urgency.
Yara is a compelling main character. She feels human in the middle of something overwhelming. Her thoughts are practical, grounded, and believable for someone just trying to survive. Small moments—like sharing bread, helping the wounded, or repeating phrases to calm herself—make her relatable and show her values without needing long explanations. Her fear feels real, especially when she realizes she doesn’t fully understand the power responding to her.
The magic system is especially interesting because it feels more instinctive than learned. Power comes when Yara needs it, but it never feels safe or controlled. The Gem and the Scion are unsettling in the best way. They don’t act like typical fantasy helpers or villains; instead, they feel ancient, patient, and morally unclear. That uncertainty adds tension and makes every choice feel risky.
The pacing is mostly strong. Action scenes are clear and easy to follow, while quieter sections give the reader time to absorb what’s happening. Occasionally, the descriptions are very dense, and some readers may need to slow down to fully picture the environment, but this also adds to the weight and seriousness of the story.
Overall, this is a dark, well-written fantasy opening that focuses on consequence rather than heroics. It sets up big questions about power, responsibility, and survival without giving easy answers. The ending leaves the reader uneasy and curious, which is exactly what a strong opening should do.
AlaEddine storiesRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story starts dark right away and makes it clear that power in this world comes with a cost. The prologue is heavy and uncomfortable in a good way. Watching the healer try to save someone and slowly realize they turned him into something else sets the tone fast. It shows that the magic system is dangerous and not fully understood, which makes the stakes feel real from the beginning.
When the story moves to Yara in Runewick it slows down just enough to show daily life before everything falls apart. The market scenes feel grounded and give a good sense of how she survives day to day. Small moments like sharing bread with the child make her feel human and not just another fantasy protagonist. When the explosion hits the pacing shifts hard into survival and chaos without getting confusing.
Chapter two keeps the tension going with the ruined city and the strange cultists moving toward the temple. Yara’s reactions feel believable. She is scared but still practical, focused on water and staying alive. Chapter three is where the action really kicks in. Her powers showing up during the fight feels desperate rather than heroic, and the aftermath shows she does not fully trust what she can do.
There are a few long descriptions that could be tightened to keep scenes moving faster, but overall the tone is consistent and the world feels dangerous. Strong start with clear stakes and a main character that feels grounded while the situation around her keeps getting worse.
CD AcostaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The writing for this series is so descriptive it really makes you feel as if you are in the story with the character. The detail is so vivid that brings it brings the world and story to life in a way that other authors simply cannot do. The world is very interesting, and one can see the complexity of the situations the MC finds herself in.Very unique take on the LitRPG genre and it is amazingly well written.
Cats andafiddleRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story is stunningly controlled and deeply unsettling in the best possible way. What begins as survival horror quietly transforms into something far rarer: a meditation on power as organization, hunger as logistics, and mercy as a resource that can be spent too well.
The prose is confident, tactile, and unflinching. Every space feels lived in — damp stone, ash-choked streets, the weight of tools worn smooth by years of hands. Objects matter here, not as flavor but as memory made solid. The way meaning is embedded in keepsakes, habits, and work gives the magic system a moral density that’s both elegant and disturbing. Nothing comes free, and the story never lets you forget who pays.
The central transformation is especially compelling. Watching Yara shift from reactive survivor to deliberate builder is thrilling and frightening at the same time. She doesn’t become cruel; she becomes efficient, and the text understands how much more dangerous that is. The emergence of rules — slow power, anchors, purpose — feels earned rather than explained, discovered through failure, consequence, and restraint. The few moments where things go wrong land hard, precisely because the intentions are careful and humane.
The supporting cast elevates everything. Each newly shaped figure feels purposeful rather than ornamental, and the story resists the temptation to glorify them. They are useful, yes — but the cost of that usefulness is always visible. Eliza, in particular, is exceptional: a steady, human counterbalance whose clarity and concern prevent the narrative from tipping into triumphalism. She gives the story its conscience without ever softening its teeth.
What really sets this section apart is its emotional honesty. It doesn’t pretend that order is evil or that survival must be gentle. Instead, it asks a harder question: what kind of person do you become when you learn how to make suffering productive? The answer is never simple, and the text is brave enough to sit in that di
CynicalOrangeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Most grimdark stories open with the world already broken. This one opens with Yara stealing bread from a sleeping baker's boy and giving the bigger half to a kid with a puppy. By the time the explosion tears Runewick apart, you're not watching a city fall, you're watching her city fall. The vendors, the gulls, the fountain with its mossy coins. The story earns its devastation by making you care about what's being destroyed first.The prose is rich without being heavy. Details arrive through senses rather than exposition. You taste the tanneries, feel the heat from Temple Hill, hear the docks ringing in the wrong key. Yara's horns catching the light while a child says "pretty" is a small, delicate moment that tells you everything about how she moves through this world: hidden, cautious, briefly seen.Once the Gem enters the picture, the story shifts into something more unsettling. The relationship between Yara and the voice in her chest is a negotiation she keeps losing. "Rest when I rest. Feed when I feed." The power doesn't just cost her sleep and choices, it costs her the rules she set for herself. Watching her try to stay human while something inhuman keeps rewriting the terms is where this story finds its real tension.If there's a note, the prose density can tire you out in longer stretches, particularly through the middle sections. But that's a minor gripe in a story that commits this fully to its world and its character.Progression fantasy where the progression actually hurts. Read it.
GraceBMorgan_Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is one of those stories that's going to stick with you, and not just because of the grimdark aesthetics and horrifying imagery that draws you into the world, but a main character that is really, truly trying her best in a world stacked against her.
Yara is the kind of character that is set on the path of evil and fights it every step of the way. Sometimes she wins and sometimes she loses. Sometimes she makes choices that I don't know if I COULD make, but there's always these beautiful little humanizing moments that really show character depth.
The devotion of the author doesn't end there. It's clear that he's put a lot of thought and care into every aspect of the story, from each horrifying moment to every scrap of worldbuilding we're drip fed, making us continually want more, more, more.
Much like a certain Gem, we are bound to hunger for more.
Truthfully, there are a couple of moments that the story drags, but even when it drags it does so intentionally, giving us more insight into the world, the characters, all of these little moments between people stuck in the worst possible situation. There are moments where those people are cruel and others where they are kind. There are no true villains just like there are no true heroes--not even our main girl Yara.
And yet, you root for her, anyway, because really, she's being directed by forces greater than she could ever imagine and fighting every step of the way against destiny to try and save those around her.
When she fails, it breaks your heart, and when she succeeds, you want to stand up and cheer.
And always, you are left hungering for more.
I L ShadeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I like this story. There are very few dialogue opportunities in the start of the story but the narration really hits home and make you walk alongside the main character. The style starst of as clipped in the prologue chapter because Yara is in a hurry and then builds to a rhythm in the first chapter.
The grammar is well done. I found a typo. But everyone has a typo here or there so I am not going to take even half a star away for that. In fact, the choice of words use well considered to build the atmosphere.
The story is where I will take half a star away. I am at chapter five. The story is intriguing and gripping and I will keep reading it but I still don't know who the bad guys are? What is the name of the city? Why this happened? And I want to know all these things so that the story can proceed ahead.
Yara the main character feels like a cute little thing to me. I really like her. I just wished I knew her motivations and why she is doing what she is doing. I like the power set she has been given but other than a scavenger, I don't know anything about her. Might have to take half a star away for that. Nah! She fed a puppy and I like her too much to do that.
Namikaze002Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The story starts off with a sad quiet tone to set the mood. The beginning focus on what happens after the action. The ruined city, the air full of ash, and the silence make everything feel tense and lived in. The writing is best, instead of telling what happens now. it let you live there and feel through characters and moments. The pacing is slow which is good. I like stories which doesnot rush in action or twists. The city feels grounded and real because of the way it is described burned, broken, and oddly still. I have only read till chapter seven for now. But the starting does a very good job. I got hooked within first few chapters.
Yara feels solid, My favourite character so far. Her actions feel justified because she isn't portrayed as being unduly heroic or sentimental. Her actions, decisions, and thoughts convey caution and experience rather than confidence for show. Little things like checking bodies, listening before moving, and picking up on details that others might overlook make her more huamn and likable.
Even with minimal screen time till now, the wounded soldiers and dying survivors feel authentic too. Their powerful dialogues make them feel important.and nobody feels overly dramatic or manufactured.
The story's atmosphere is its best feature. Without being overpowering, the sensory detail is sharp and consistent. Tension is carefully increased through the use of ash, smoke, sound, light, and silence. The action sequences are intense but clear and simple to follow. Everything is clear to imagine, from simple moments to fight scenes. Nothing seems forced .
Overall great read