In a kingdom built on Royal lies, even the soil remembers the truth.When the siege of Bronze Gate ends in mud and corpses instead of glory, royal scribe Darel is ordered to fix it with ink. One falsified chronicle turns a weary general into a divinely chosen hero. One living root, cut from a strange battlefield tree, becomes a holy relic. Both are sent to a quiet valley monastery-two witnesses, one of ink and one of wood, carrying a lie the realm is desperate to believe. In Greenhollow, Mara can feel soil and stone as if they were nerves under her skin. While she coaxes life from exhausted fields and refugee camps, Ilan-a restless gardener and scholar-longs for the kind of greatness songs are written about. When a charming wanderer named Seren teaches Ilan to tap the root-network beneath the land and glimpse "better futures," the cost is written first in blood and ash: a burned valley, a branded prophet, and a kingdom held together by fear, famine, and the shining symbol of the Brand. As war falters and revolt rises, Ilan must choose between useful myth and costly truth, between steering history and standing with the people his visions have harmed. Mara, Lysa-a furious girl carrying the last seeds of a ruined home-and a growing handful of quiet allies answer in smaller ways: hidden gardens in prison dust, stubborn hospitality, and a new, honest chronicle to stand against the old forged one. In the shadow of a wounded, glowing tree, they gamble everything on a different kind of power: many gardens, many readers, and stories that name the cost instead of polishing it away. The Chronicle of Ash and Gardens is a character-driven fantasy about propaganda and memory, false miracles and stubborn mercy-perfect for readers who like their epics with more cabbages than crowns, more hard choices than chosen ones, and a quiet hope that survives even in ash.