This book was never planned. It emerged because the story refused to end. While writing the second book of The Shattered Legacy, the narrative kept expanding, pulling threads that could not be resolved in silence. The ending felt unfinished, not because of missing action, but because the truth had not yet been faced. The story needed room to...

For centuries, the small village of Hikonoki Mura lived in quiet respect, known across the land for its timber of unmatched quality. Their devotion was rewarded when the shogun sent a wooden statue of a dragon carved from their own cedar, a symbol of trust and honor that bound the people and the empire together. The statue was small, yet it...

At midnight a parish burns down and the town wakes to a ruin that should not breathe. Father Bob Mildren lies inside. The first story told on the square is murder. The lab tells another. Wind shattered a window, glass cut his neck, and there is no smoke in his lungs. While volunteers brace the ribs of the church, a cleanup crew opens a sealed...