Death Arrow

In the Atchafalaya Basin, Afro-Indigenous coastal botanist Laura Blackwood discovers an emerald Seed of Light inside Grandmother Cypress, an ancient tree protecting Council Island from Helion Energy’s drilling scheme. Chosen by the memory of ancestral Keepers, Laura becomes the Atchafalaya Keeper, shaping cypress-and-heron light into armor, a bow, a shield, and Swoop, a hawk-shaped spirit construct. Her power holds together what the water and powerful people try to erase.