Dawn crept over the grove in pale gold, chasing the remnants of nightmare into hiding. Dew clung to blades of grass like tears, and the wind carried the scent of a world that had seen too much blood.
Aria stood at the edge of the ward, her cloak wrapped tightly around her, her red hair damp and braided back. The events of the night still burned beneath her skin. Lyra's warning haunted her: a weapon beneath the Lunar Cradle. A vision of death. A key.
Kael stirred behind her, his dark silhouette rising with the sun. He crossed to her side in silence, eyes searching the horizon.
"You're already thinking three steps ahead," he said.
Aria nodded. "I don't know what we'll find at the Cradle. But I know Celene's looking for it, too."
"Then we get there first."
They left before midday, the group leaner now—just Aria, Kael, Nyla, and Raekon, who had rejoined them in the night like a shadow slipping into its place.
Lyra remained in the grove, guarded by loyal spirits Aria summoned for protection. Her body needed healing. Her spirit—time.
---
The journey to the Lunar Cradle was treacherous.
They climbed through cliffs veined with old runes, crossed bridges that vanished behind them, and passed through ruins where even time had grown afraid to linger. Faint whispers haunted the wind. More than once, Nyla shot arrows at illusions meant to lead them astray. Raekon kept chanting protective spells, burning wards into the earth beneath their feet.
Kael stayed close to Aria, even when the path narrowed. He watched her more than the forest, his eyes betraying the storm he kept buried deep.
The Cradle itself lay deep within a sunken vale. Once a sacred place of the Moonborne, it had been abandoned after the last blood eclipse. Rumors claimed the moon herself had cracked the land open in fury and sorrow.
At sunset, they arrived.
A vast hollow stretched before them—pillars of marble half-swallowed by earth, silver stones glowing faintly beneath vines. A broken archway marked the entrance. Moss-covered steps led downward, as if into the very heart of the moon.
As they passed beneath it, a rush of magic swept over them—cool and curious. Not hostile. Not yet.
"It recognizes you," Raekon murmured.
Aria stepped forward, each step lighter than the last. "This place was built by my ancestors. My blood… it calls to it."
Inside the cradle, moonlight filtered through cracks in the domed ceiling, casting soft beams across ancient murals. Images of wolves with wings, of stars bound in chains, of a girl with red hair raising a blade of silver fire.
Aria stopped. That image—it looked exactly like her.
Kael approached, frowning. "That's not possible."
Raekon examined the painting. "It's not prophecy. It's memory. This has happened before. A cycle. She's part of it."
The ground trembled.
A stone platform rose from the center of the room. Upon it lay a box—silver, sealed with blood and bone.
Nyla whistled low. "Whatever's in there wasn't meant to be opened easily."
Aria approached, her hand hovering over it.
She felt the magic react—alive, ancient, *angry*. Her blood responded, thrumming in her veins.
She pressed her palm to the seal.
Pain lanced through her arm. A scream—not hers—echoed in the chamber. The box shuddered, then slowly, silently, opened.
Inside was a blade.
Longer than her forearm. Silver with veins of moonstone. The hilt bore her family crest—the Vale sigil, cracked through the center.
Kael stared. "What is that?"
Aria lifted it. The moment her fingers closed around the grip, light surged through the room.
Visions crashed over her.
A battlefield under twin moons. A red-haired warrior bleeding beside a dark wolf. Celene screaming as shadows consumed her. A tower of glass shattering into stars.
She gasped and dropped the blade.
Kael caught her. "Aria!"
Her body trembled. "It's called Moonsunder. It's… a god-killer. Created to sever power from its source."
Raekon's face paled. "That blade was forbidden. Even the gods feared it. If Celene gets her hands on it—"
"She won't," Aria said. "I'll wield it."
Kael touched her shoulder. "Even if it kills you?"
She looked into his eyes. "If it saves our world, yes."
Nyla stepped forward. "We have to move. If we found this place, so can she."
Aria picked up the blade again. This time, it didn't burn.
Instead, it sang.
The murals around them shimmered faintly, as if awakened. One of them shifted subtly—Celene's image forming in shadow, her hands outstretched as if reaching for the very blade in Aria's grasp.
Kael noticed. "She's connected to this place too."
Aria nodded slowly. "Through blood. But blood isn't destiny."
They turned to leave.
As they did, a whisper echoed from the broken murals.
"She rises. She falls. She rises again. But only once shall she break the chain."
Raekon stiffened. "That wasn't there before."
Outside the cradle, the sky cracked with thunder.
Celene had found their trail.
The hunt had begun.
But this time, Aria would not run.
She would rise—and make the stars themselves remember her name.
---
To be continue...