The day electricity left the world.

The day electricity left the world, the world forgot it had ever been bright.

Centuries have passed since the Bright Age fell silent. On the continent of Asase, the ruins of that age stand roofless under the sun, the old roads run straight to nowhere, and the machines that once thought and spoke lie quiet in the earth. What remains belongs to farmers, smiths, and storytellers, and to an old tale of a god sealed away inside the machines.

In a mountain village, a girl named Ama inherits a chest that has come down through the women of her family for longer than any of them can remember. Inside are eleven cold objects no one can name. Ama has a streak of grey in her hair, and dreams of rooms that glow without fire.

Then the raiders come. The Night of Ash begins a road of thirteen hundred miles: a little sister who grieves with her hands, a hunter of the high country, a scholars' enclave that keeps forbidden theories, and a warlord who burns villages for the old things. At the end of the road stands a grey hill with a door, and above the door, the Words.

Panah Nuhra is a mythic fantasy drawn from the folklore and cosmology of West Africa: a story of inheritance, memory, and what wakes when the lights come back.

Book One of Tales of the Long Return.