Before the river learned to whisper, Ko'woli was an empire of Light. Now, it is a fractured world surviving in the First Silence. In the quiet citadel of Mawo'ri, a restless boy puts on a pair of ancient blue sandals—and accidentally wakes the cosmos.

Hunted by the terrifying Veiled Ones and judged by serpents older than the earth, Michael A'dan discovers he carries the bloodline of the being who once broke the world. As the shadows of the Mystic Forest close in, Michael must choose whether to mend creation, or unmake it entirely.