Chapter 1 — The Door in the Orchard
The garden behind her grandfather's house had always felt older than the town around it.
Nura discovered the door at dusk, hidden behind climbing jasmine and carved with symbols that shimmered only when she recited aloud. It should not have opened. It should not have led anywhere.
Yet beyond it stretched a valley lit from within, where rivers glowed like amber and trees bowed under fruit that seemed to hum the Names of Allah into the air.
She stepped through before fear could catch up to wonder.
And the world she had known closed silently behind her.