Prologue
For centuries, we lived in secret - moving through the dark folds of the world where human eyes seldom wandered. We kept to the forests, the veiled worlds, the forgotten places carved between one heartbeat and the next. It was easier that way. Safer. Humans believed themselves alone at the top of the food chain, and we allowed that illusion to flourish. They saw only what we permitted them to see: a flicker in their peripheral vision, a shadow slipping behind a tree, a growl dismissed as wind in the branches.
Secrecy was our shield. Their ignorance, our sanctuary.
But nothing stays buried forever. Time has a way of loosening even the oldest knots.
