Location:Virescent Expanse — The Basin (Neutral Territory)
Date/Time:TC1854.05.01-10
The Basin had no name because no tribe claimed it.
A shallow depression in the Expanse where mountain met river met forest — a geographic coincidence that placed it at the intersection of three major tribal territories without belonging to any of them. The Stone-Fang considered it too low. The Tide-Walker considered it too dry. The Thorn-Hide considered it too exposed. For eight hundred years, this mutual rejection had made it the closest thing the Confederacy had to neutral ground.
The root network carried the summons. Not a command — a request. The Thorn-Hide elder's voice filtered through a thousand kilometers of interconnected trees, amplified by the living staff she'd planted in healed soil, carrying the authority of a woman who'd never asked for help before and was asking now.
They came.
