Prologue, 400 Years Before, & Glossary

Lilly—

My darling, I’m sorry I’ve been away so long. The New World Military has me posted in what’s left of Giza this quarter, and what they’ve uncovered here has upended everything we thought we knew.

Last month, the LIDAR 8400 picked up anomalous readings about forty-two feet beneath where the Great Sphinx once stood before the Anthropocene wars. They’d already excavated a few chambers by the time I arrived, but only this week did the scientists manage to open the hermetically sealed jars and the strange metal boxes. Inside were clay tablets, scrolls, mechanical fragments, and objects unlike anything in our records, texts written in a cuneiform no one recognizes, and devices that defy our engineers’ first guesses.

There is, however, a sliver of hope. One document appears to be a cipher, a key that lets us begin translating the rest. We’ve only just started the work; it will be long and painstaking. But from the fragments we’ve unlocked so far, this archive may hold not only a chronicle of origins but clues that could help save what remains of Earth.

Start with the first item in the package I’m sending: the one I’ve labeled “400 Years Before.” It’s the oldest piece, and it reads as if it was written before everything we call history.  An account of a single instant measured against an age so remote that no familiar landmarks survive. I’ve included the partial key we’ve developed; it should get you farther than we have here.

Lilly, to you these pages will feel immediate and new, but they speak from a time older than any story we were taught. Keep faith with the backward thread. Only by unraveling it will the path forward come into focus. Work carefully, work quietly, and keep yourself safe. I’ll come home as soon as I can get leave.

Love, Dad

400 Years Before 

Lilly and the team spent months coaxing meaning from the strange script. The oldest scroll, written in a tongue that seemed to predate language itself, traced the desperate exodus of a people fleeing a catastrophe that tore across half the universe.

What we call today, the Big Bang, they actually lived through and called it, the Primogeniture Wars: a rupture that toppled the Creator, plunged whole worlds into darkness, and forced survivors into a thousand years of hiding and hunger.

As the translations deepened, the dry ledger of events gave way to something far more intimate. The scroll did not only record flight and engineering; it kept the small, human things: the bargains struck in panic, the betrayals that saved one life at the cost of another, the quiet courage of those who stayed behind to bury a secret. It told of a planet that did not simply shelter refugees but guarded a truth beneath its skin, an artifact, a mechanism, a story so dangerous that memory itself had been ordered to forget.

What emerged from the fragments was a double story: the outward scramble to outrun waves of raw, unformed energy, and a quieter, older design threaded through their escape, a doctrine, a device, a name given to something that could be worshiped.

The more Lilly read, the less the past looked like myth and the more it looked like a plan: a manufactured origin, a deliberate beginning meant to be taught and then believed. The scroll ended not with answers but with a warning. Whoever had written it had expected readers at a later age, readers who might unspool the backward thread of time and, by doing so, set the world on a new course.

Glossary - (this will be updated with every new chapter added)

Atreyu, House — AH‑tray‑oo A noble House in the Upper

Banshido – A deadly elite force protecting the Onigh

Bay / Bays — BAY The workshop and docking district in the complex; the Bay houses machinery, repair bays, and the known entrance to the Deep.

Binding — BYN‑ding A recurring rite that awakens or advances a child’s gift; the Final Binding is the culminating, most intense ceremony.

Binding Chamber — BYN‑ding CHAYM‑ber The specific place where the Binding ritual is performed.

Black Elderberry — BLACK EL‑der‑BER‑ee A medicinal herb used for improving nocturnal eyesight.

CompStations — KOMP‑stay‑shunz Personal interface/workstations used metaphorically to describe the body shuffling through genetic “files” until the right DNA/gift appears.

Cooksonia — kook‑SOH‑nee‑uh A plant grown in the Gardens.

Danu (Little Sister) — DAH‑noo The elder known to the children as Little Sister; small in stature but ancient and wise.

Dart – fast and maneuverable small craft driven by the elite fighting force, the Banshido.

Datalink — DAY‑tuh‑link A digital display system embedded in the halls and walls of the Middle, that shows schedules, moon phases, and event status.

Deep — DEEP The lowest, cavernous levels beneath the Middle; an immense, dark region of roots, stalactites, and integrated technology where rare supplies are gathered.

Dressers — DRES‑ers Staff who clean and prepare children after they are medically cleared following a Binding.

Emergence / Emerge — ee‑MURJ / ee‑MURJ The transition from the Middle to the Upper after the Final Binding; being reborn into the Upper and presented to the Houses.

Fees / Fais — FEES / FAYZ Small garden‑dwelling creatures or spirits that are attracted to plants and buzz among the Gardens’ foliage.

Final Binding — FY‑nul BYN‑ding The last and most difficult Binding that can break and rebuild a child to reveal their final gift.

Flutterflies — FLUT‑er‑flies Translucent, colorful winged insects that frequent the Gardens and are associated with change and beauty.

Gilly — GIL‑ee The protagonist; a child in the Middle who has not yet bloomed a major gift and whose Markings are a thin lines and a broken triangle.

Mini-Gopher / Gophers — GOH‑fer / GOH‑fers Machines (and small repair models) used throughout the complex; larger versions exist in the Upper, and Gophers are also general utility vehicles.

Kitsune Haulers — KIT‑soon HAW‑lers hauling vehicles mentioned in the Sanctuary of the Middle.

Labs — LABZ Scientific facilities where the children were created and where Mother, Little Sister, and other scientist work.

Lepidondendrons — lep‑ih‑don‑DEN‑drons A tall plant species cultivated in the Gardens; part of the complex’s flora.

Thermal Markings — Thur-Mal MAR‑kingz Skin patterns that bloom after each Binding; visible records of a child’s progress and identity. (Like a tattoo)

Memorial Wall — meh‑MOR‑ee‑uhl wawl A wall of Soul Symbols honoring those who have passed in the Middle.

Mirabilis (trees) — meer‑uh‑BIL‑iss Towering trees in the Gardens with cones that must be harvested from great heights.

Makers — MAY‑kers Scientists who assemble the children’s DNA and craft their physical and genetic traits.

Mother — MUTH‑er The primary caretaker/leader of the children in the Middle; a scientist and maternal figure who oversees Bindings and training.

Newt — NOOT Gilly’s secret, long‑lived Dragoncat, with fluffy black fur who sneaks into her room.

Onigh - a long-hidden faction of the royal family

Primogeniture Wars – Earthlings know this event as the big bang, but these people called it the Primogeniture Wars.

Pulsatilla — pul‑suh‑TIL‑uh An herb used for treating headaches.

Ryders — RY‑ders small vehicles or bikes that rain on grain, used to manage livestock in the Sanctuary.

Satchel — SATCH‑uhl personal bag used to carry tools and supplies.

Silverback – a sleek, fast craft driven by the Skyforce in the Upper.  

Sirkel room — SIR‑kel room A central, organic chamber where classes and gatherings are held; seats grow from the floor in a large amphitheater environment.

Sparing rooms / Sparing — SPAHR‑ing Training spaces and sessions for physical combat and gift practice in the Middle.

Soki & Enki, Elders — SOH‑kee / EN‑kee Elders from the Upper who come down to teach classes in the Middle.

Soul Symbols — SOHL SIM‑bulz Individual symbols on the Memorial Wall representing each person who has passed in the Middle.

Sophia — soh‑FEE‑uh A child trained as a Wisewoman who tends the Gardens, prepares herbs, and crafts spells and charms.

Tilly / Tilly Brew — TIL‑ee A social gathering or feast; the Tilly Brew is the herbal drink served at such events.

Tree of Life — TREE of LYFE The great tree above the Middle whose roots and structure penetrate the caverns below; a central natural landmark.

Triune — TRY‑oon The world/realm containing the Middle, Upper, and Deep; the setting for the children’s lives and the book’s title.

Urams Trials — OO‑ramz TRY‑ulz A set of difficult, trap‑filled trials devised by Uram (An elder of the Upper) to test the children after the showcase.

Valerian root — vuh‑LEER‑ee‑un root An herb Sophia carries for use in the Tilly; used as a sedative in the narrative.

Wristlink — RIST‑link A wearable device used by characters to receive alerts and manage schedules.

Wormpiller — WORM‑pil‑er A larval creature used metaphorically by Mother to describe a painful transformation that becomes a Flutterfly.