The Watching Bird

DIFFERENCE IS NOT A DISORDER. On the planet Erden, where truth is shaped by the eternal light of Lux, Selene is just another registrant at the Academy of Truth and Knowledge. But when dreams of takings by the miasma become terrifying waking visions, Selene begins to question her very perceptions of reality. Why does the mist that brings the Death shimmer in colors only she can see? What are the strange lines of force connecting people and objects, and why do they converge on the ancient carved wooden icon called the Watching Bird? With her new friends and fellow registrants, Ichabod and the golden-souled Altheia, Selene embarks on a journey of discovery that takes them beyond the boundaries of the Principality, into the dark forest of the Wildings and toward truths hidden for millennia. Forced to choose between a dangerous reality and a simulacrum of goodness, Selene embraces her identity as a disharmoniant “abomination.” “A richly woven science-fantasy tale of philosophy, adventure, deception, and the power of radical free will.”