Five centuries after the Patronese first set foot upon Pagalan, the world trembles once more at the threshold of discovery. Commander Gideon Frampton leads an expedition beyond Denesthear's borders into the misted highlands, chasing the faint hum of a resonance long thought extinct. Beneath the mountains, he uncovers something far older than stone, a sleeping power that remembers the first settlers and calls their blood to account.

In the heart of Tramstell, Jason Telismore, heir to the High Council, uncovers forbidden records that expose the Council's greatest lie: the vanished expeditions of the past were not lost, but silenced. Joined by the enigmatic Veyra Solenne and renegade pilot Aric Dane, Jason begins to piece together the truth behind the gates, monoliths that were never mere portals, but the living conduits of the Benefactors' design.

As tremors shake both mountain and city, fissures spread through faith and power alike. The Council tightens its grip, tribes rise in revolt, and the resonance that once promised unity now whispers of awakening. Alliances fray, secrets ignite, and the sins of ancestry resurface.

Caught between revelation and ruin, Gideon, Jason, and Veyra must decide whether to preserve the world they know, or awaken the one that waits beneath it.

In "Establishment," the second volume of The Pagalan Chronicles: Origins, Andrew Houlston deepens his saga of destiny, deception, and rebirth, where science and faith blur, and the line between creation and consciousness begins to crumble.