Most people avoid Ryork Wood-and with a strange illness creeping across the continent, they now fear it more than ever. No one knows where the sickness began, only that it spreads faster each season... and no cure has been found. Rain Chambers isn't willing to stand by. A renowned archaeologist with a reputation for uncovering what others deem lost, she follows fragments of her father's forgotten research and a map marked with the Crimson Cone Flower. Ancient Sierran texts hint at a hidden route into the Wood-one that may lead to Sumore, the vanished city swallowed by roots, ruins, and centuries of silence. To decipher the linguistic clues buried in those texts, Rain turns to Adrian Nettle, a brilliant scholar of ancient languages whose quiet academic life has never taken him far from his study. Together they set out for the eastern wilds of Xentria, where the Wood dominates the land and civilization clings only to its coasts. But Ryork Wood is not simply a forest. Its flora shift in unnatural ways. Its fungi hum with latent consciousness. Its creatures seem shaped by old, watching magic. The deeper Rain and Adrian travel, the more the Wood feels aware-ancient, patient, and unmistakably alive. Somewhere within its depths lies Sumore... and perhaps the key to stopping the sickness threatening Careen. But secrets that old do not give themselves freely. Adventure. Mystery. Discovery. The cure may lie in Ryork Wood- but the forest decides who may uncover it.

Camdyn never wanted to lead. But when his brother is killed and their community falters, he's forced into a role he was never meant to fill. As the Withering spreads, twisting creatures and devouring the land, Camdyn sets out to find a cure. In the wreckage of human civilization, magic has reawakened, and with it, old beings long forced into hiding. Camdyn forges an uneasy alliance with Flora, a tree nymph sworn to protect the wilds, and Saelune, a Sirin haunted by visions of ruin. Together they discover a devastating truth: the Withering is not a disease, but the symptom of a world where the ancient source of balance has been broken. To heal it, they must journey into the Verdant Deep, where salvation comes at a price and the cost of restoring harmony may demand more than any of them are ready to give. **content warning: some (biological) horror elements are depicted throughout the story** __________________ "Camdyn froze. The creature stepped into view. It had once been a large stag, but now it was something else-mutated and rabid. Its head hung crooked on its neck, its coat patchy and matted, blackened with disease and decay. Its eyes locked onto his, hollow and haunting. Even the ground seemed to rot under its tread. He'd seen it before. Once. With his brother. The creature wasn't the same, but the sickness was."