Biological AI. Sentient trees. In fact, a whole forest that develops the physical means to reconnect with the society that created them. This is the story of what happened. Of 'how it came to this.' For those who crave something different. Step into the Arboreal Realm. Meet the BioGrid, the collective name for the biological computer in the root system of the vast, genetically modified, banyan forest known as the Carnivorous Forest. After the Pulse, it reconfigured itself from an entity into a society. Since their intelligence was based on data supplied by human programmers, it was only natural for the trees to model themselves on us. The first human interface was a disaster. When the trees filled a toddler's brain to bursting with incomprehensible data, they assumed her dead. But Glory was not dead. And after glimpsing the contents of her little sister's jumbled mind Adoris learned how to extract the secrets of the BioGrid and the lost technologies that created it. That knowledge facilitated her rise to power. To the humans, she became the Executrix. To the forest, she was the Operator. When Glory learned to communicate with others through song and started spilling secrets to all who listened, Adoris was forced to have her silenced. Following her first direct interface with the trees, Adoris hired an assassin to make her problem go away. Meet Glory. She makes an amazing amount of trouble for a dead girl.