RYSE of the 1NES - The Quest of the Remnant: Part 1 (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798258119179)

Kofi has never been more than a blacksmith's apprentice in the village of Nakarra. He shapes iron beside the man who raised him, eats meals prepared by the woman who chose him as her own, and walks the orchard paths where the air settles into something quieter than silence. It is a good life. A small life. The kind of life that doesn't ask questions.

But the sparks from his forge don't behave the way sparks should. They bend. They linger. They answer him. And lately, water holds light a half second too long when he's near it. The bones of his right hand ache in ways that have nothing to do with hammering.

When a wandering mystic arrives with questions older than the village itself, Kofi's quiet life begins to fracture. The old man watches the forge with eyes that carry recognition, not curiosity, as though he has been waiting for this particular fire to do this particular thing. Something ancient is waking in Kofi, and it has drawn the attention of robed figures in the forest who deface old shrines and move with the patience of people who have been afraid for a very long time.

To find answers, Kofi must leave behind everything he loves, the forge, the orchard, the parents who knew this day was coming and dreaded it anyway. On the road, he will meet strangers who carry gifts they don't fully understand, mentors whose guidance comes wrapped in things they refuse to say, and a faithful companion with four legs and better instincts than anyone in the fellowship.

The road ahead will test whether the boy who hears metal before it speaks can survive what the metal has been trying to tell him. Because something called the Remnant is waiting. And the people hunting for it have been hunting far longer than Kofi has been alive.

RYSE of the 1NES is an Afrofuturist epic fantasy series rooted in African cosmology, mythic world-building, and the quiet power of ordinary people called to carry extraordinary weight. If you love the poetic intensity of N.K. Jemisin, the spiritual depth of Octavia Butler, and the mythic scope of Tomi Adeyemi, this is your next journey.