Prologue: A Time Before
They've written books that change how people think.
Can you write one that changes how they dream?
–The Bookbuilder
"Seek the Fatebreaker. The Sunslayer and Tidebringer. Last among the first. They know not his worth."
The tired, old man scratched the warning into the bark, as he had a thousand times already. Then he realized his mistake. Hastily, he tried to recarve two words, but the roots ensnared his wrists before he could. They ignored his protests and dragged him back to the bramble throne. He fought them, as he always did, but they enveloped his body and squeezed his limbs. They leeched from him what little power he had left.
Around him, his wooden prison reached the heavens. The heartwood was taller than any other tree in the ancient forest. Higher, even, than the spellworked buildings of the capital, than the stone library, and the gods-wrought lighthouse he had scaled so long ago.
"What have I done?"
For the first time, he hoped the Omen Tree wasn't listening.
YOU ARE READING
Tomebound
ActionCallam Quill wants nothing more than to bind a tome and gain access to magic and the written word. In Port Cardica, his home, literacy defines power, and those who have it lord over those who don't. Mages climb the Seekers Tower, travel the Solstice...
