The Codex of the World‑Tree

The Codex of the World‑Tree

When the sky over New Cydonia finally cleared after a century of ash, the people who had survived the Great Silence gathered at the foot of the ancient basalt wall that rose from the center of the city‑state. They called it the World‑Tree, for in the oldest myths it had once been a living giant whose roots drank from the deep oceans and whose crown brushed the heavens. Now it was a stone monolith, etched with symbols that no living language could fully decipher—until Lira, the archivist of the Celestial Library, stepped forward with the Codex of the Earth cradled in her hands.