Part 1: The Sound of Trees Standing

There were two who still believed the old legends. That the gods once wielded sentient trees like swords in a war for the earthly realm. That the Earth God Ga-Murri forged the same weapons for mortal hands, to defend against the world's great evil. The Dreamseer Filae sensed a dark future within the soil. Puali, the warrior-chief, defied the council's wishes, leading an army to a war where none survived.

The forest city of Tuawara hasn't forgiven either of them — and it hasn't forgiven Agi for carrying their blood.

Now the dreams are starting. The same visions, the same prophecy his parents believed in so fervently it destroyed them: the rise of a Dark God, the fall of his people, and a weapon waiting to be claimed.

When two cicada converge for the first time in thousands of years and a sacred rite returns, Agi must choose: is he the key to stopping an ancient evil, or merely inheriting his parents' madness? But in a world of towering Mother Trees, mycelial memory, and an earth that has been watching and waiting — he won't be choosing alone.

Roju, newly arrived from the frozen north, falls in beside him without apology. Kiara, a Higherborn girl haunted by visions she didn't ask for, follows a pull she can't explain. Together they venture beyond the city's borders into a forbidden valley, where the evil Agi's parents gave their lives to stop has already taken hold — where humanity, beast, and old magic have already drawn their battle lines—and allies come in shapes none of them expected.

Sentient trees protect the city-states of Éhro-Türro. Its rivers power invention. Its warriors ride giant wombats into war. The fungi-like fae, the Mára, bind the chosen few to a great knowing… The Endless Eye of Dreaming.