As a boy, Galen feared his father’s temper. He spent most of his time wandering the deep forests near his home where, during high tide, the sea overflowed the river so that the tall pines rose straight out of the water. There he encountered ancient ruins made of strange stones that seemed to respond to his presence. Galen took some of them home and he found, if he focused his mind, he could make them move as he willed. Disapproving of his son “playing with rocks”, his ignorant father demanded Galen accompany him to sea.
One day, Galen realized what looked like an island was actually more ruins, submerged by the sea, but his father refused to approach. Galen became upset. More stones rose from beneath them, splitting the hull of their small boat. He woke upon the shore, but he never saw his father again.
Returning home meant being shackled to the place for good — he would take up his father’s trade to provide for his mother. The secret of the stones would remain forever a mystery. He chose not to return to that fate. Instead, he journeyed far and long, learning much of the stones, the ruins, and the civilization that built them.
At first it felt like nothing but paranoia — suspicious figures glimpsed in dark taverns or behind him on empty roads. Then folk in towns he passed through told him that dangerous-looking men had been asking about him. Galen turned his considerable intellect to divining the identity of his shadows, but years passed during which he learned little: a name, some symbols, a vague plan he could never allow to come to fruition. He is a solitary man now, waging a war of the mind with an unseen opponent and, in all the world, only he knows what is at stake.