Tea & Tears

Tea & Tears continues the Incursion Universe with an intimate story about trauma, recovery, and the difficult work of learning how to live honestly. After the events of Denouement, Willem Plunk, Ossa Verdure, and Thomas Maud Wallace retreat to Ryleh hoping to confront the burdens they have long kept buried. What begins as an attempt to decompress slowly becomes something far more difficult as old wounds, unhealthy coping mechanisms, and deeply rooted fears rise to the surface. As the three struggle through therapy, friendship, dependency, and emotional collapse, they discover that healing is neither clean nor linear. Good intentions alone cannot undo years of damage, and confronting pain directly may threaten the fragile stability they have built around themselves. Set within the quietly uncanny world of the Incursion Universe, Tea & Tears examines trauma not as spectacle, but as an exhausting, deeply human reality. Through vulnerable conversations, strained relationships, and moments of unexpected compassion, V. Michael Lazar explores the cost of survival and the risk inherent in allowing oneself to be truly known. Melancholic, introspective, and character-driven, Tea & Tears is a speculative fiction novel about reciprocal harm, emotional repression, and the uncertain possibility of recovery.