The stone boatmen

the long version

"Tolmie tells a tale of three cities, separated by oceans, lost to one another long ago: the first, the city of rituals, of ceremonies; the second, the city of words, of poetry; and the third, the city of the golden birds, of dreams. In their harbors stand the stone boatmen, pointing outward toward the unknown. Now the birds are fostering a newfound relationship of the three cities of the ancestors, and the voyages of the ship Aphelion and its crew are beginning to rebuild the links."