Antiaris

The valley of death is mostly a rumor, and Antiaris cultivates it. The upas tree of Java — Antiaris toxicaria, the legendary poison tree — was said to kill every bird that flew over it, every traveler who slept beneath it. The truth is quieter: its latex is genuinely toxic, the old arrow poison, but the birds nest in it unharmed. He lets the legend stand. "Fear," he says, "is the cheapest fence ever built, and I did not even have to build it." As the Deep Root's war-captain he keeps the faction's ledgers — what the roots know, the crown never says — and his own entry is the shortest: survived the stories. Young poison trees ask whether to correct the myths. "Never," he says. "Correct a myth and you owe people the truth. The truth is mine." Somewhere in his rings sits the year with no ring. He has never shown anyone which one.