Lantern
Writer’s DeskBoardsepisode 1 preview

Episode 1 · Explicit · 18+ private alpha

The Cathedral of Grief

Release cadenceNew Chapters Every Monday

#Frankenstein Elements#Mad Scientist#Body Horror#Gaslamp Fantasy#Power Imbalance
Table of ContentsEpisode 1 of 6
In this Season · Beautiful Creatures, Terrible loveReading order

About this story

Grief remade her. Once a woman of science and wonder, Victoria now moves through a world hollowed by loss; a cathedral of smoke and silence. In the hush of her workshop, where gears turn like rosaries and glass hums with trapped breath, she seeks what the heavens have denied her: life born from death, beauty drawn from decay.

When her creation stirs beneath the storm, it opens its eyes not to the light, but to her, the mother, the maker, the mourner. Between them blooms something fragile and forbidden, a tenderness that teeters on the edge of ruin. Every touch is a confession; every breath, a betrayal of nature itself.

In a city gilded with Art Deco splendor and corroded by secrets, Victoria becomes both god and ghost, haunted by the love she has forged from grief's raw marrow.

A reimagining of Frankenstein steeped in shadow and sorrow, Victoria is a gothic elegy for the ones we cannot let go; and the monstrous beauty born when we try.

Explore Aurenveil

Your guide through this story

Coda Languez

Meet Coda Languez

18+ content warning

Before you open Episode 1

Victoria contains detailed on-page sexual content. The episode itself is hidden until you confirm that you are an adult and choose to continue.

View story content warnings
  • Grave robbing and body trafficking
  • Graphic violence and one killing
  • Dissociative violence with unaccounted blood
  • Explicit sex
  • One encounter initiated in anger with physical force
  • A person treated as a research subject, in writing
  • Emotional neglect and withholding inside the central relationship
  • Spousal death and prolonged grief
  • A secondary character's death by suicide (backstory)
  • Industrial poverty and occupational illness
  • Unrequited love
Not now — return to LanternLantern remembers this confirmation only for this browser session. This screen is a reader-choice safeguard, not identity verification.