On Lineages That Read the World

Before the gold, there were clans who read the world through senses the gold never learned to hear.

Some read through shadow. Some built with sound. One clan — the one this book circles — read the world through stone. Through clay, through cord, through the slow arithmetic of a heartbeat felt at distance. To them, a floor was a page.

A bond is not a gift. A bond is a weight chosen for you before you could refuse it.

That is all I will say for now. The rest is Nara's to carry, and yours to find in the book.