Chapter Five: The Moon Within
The mountain mist hadn't yet lifted when Sheila woke the next morning, curled under a blanket she didn't remember pulling over herself. Her window was slightly ajar, letting in the crisp scent of pine and earth. For a second, everything felt normal again.
Then her eyes fell on the pendant glowing faintly on her bedside table.
And everything came crashing back.
The shade. The shrine. Hyunsoo's blade. The word "consort."
She sat up slowly, running a hand through her tangled hair. Her entire body felt like it had been drained and filled with something else—energy, ancient and shifting just beneath her skin. The crescent symbols on her back had faded from view, but she could still feel them like ghosts carved into bone.
She needed answers.
And there was only one person left to ask.
---
☽
Hyunsoo was waiting for her at the edge of Naksan Park, near a forgotten Buddhist statue covered in ivy. He wore civilian clothes now—black jeans, an oversized sweater, and a long coat that somehow still gave him the presence of a warrior. He looked less like a general and more like a university student lost in thought. But his eyes were sharper than ever.
"You came," he said softly as she approached.
"I didn't know where else to go."
He nodded toward the trees. "We're not safe in the open. Come. There's someone I want you to meet."
---
They walked in silence, winding through hidden trails until they reached an abandoned hanok-style house, tucked deep in the forest. The place was cloaked in enchantment—Sheila felt it the moment they crossed the invisible barrier. The air changed. Time slowed.
Inside, candles flickered without wind. Scrolls hung from the beams, inked with runes she couldn't read. A smell of lavender and old wood filled the air.
A woman stepped out from behind a curtain.
She was tall and elegant, dressed in layered hanbok robes with silver hair coiled into a crown braid. Her eyes were sharp—too sharp to be entirely human.
"Aunt Heeyoung," Hyunsoo said with a bow. "This is her."
The woman studied Sheila like one studies a wild thing—cautious, intrigued, not yet trusting.
"I've waited seventeen years," she said, voice smooth as velvet. "I never thought the Moon Queen would be reborn so... small."
"Excuse me?" Sheila frowned.
"Relax," Hyunsoo murmured. "This is how she shows affection."
Heeyoung snorted softly. "Affection would've been slapping her for waiting this long to awaken. We've already lost one relic, and the Council will soon begin their purge."
Sheila stiffened. "I don't understand what any of that means."
"Good," Heeyoung said. "Then let's fix that."
---
☽
Sheila stood in the center of a dimly lit training circle marked with salt, moonflower petals, and thin lines of silver dust. At the edge, Heeyoung held a curved staff etched with moon runes. Hyunsoo stood beside her, watching with quiet intensity.
"Magic doesn't come from chants or potions," Heeyoung said. "It comes from memory. Blood. Legacy. You don't conjure it—you awaken it."
Sheila's hands were trembling.
"And what if I don't want it?"
"Then it will take you anyway."
The pendant around her neck pulsed, responding to the circle.
"Close your eyes," Heeyoung instructed. "Call the moon within."
Sheila obeyed.
She felt… stupid, at first. But then something inside her stirred. A flicker in the dark. A heartbeat not her own. The longer she stood in silence, the more it built—warmth behind her ribs, a rhythm beneath her breath.
She thought of the dream. Of the flames. Of the blade.
Of Jiwoon lying dead before her.
Her chest ached—but she didn't flinch.
She thought of Hyunsoo's voice, whispering "You promised me."
The pendant grew hot.
Her palms tingled.
And then—
Boom.
A wave of silver light burst from her chest, surging outward like a ripple in water. The candle flames blew out. The scrolls lifted from the walls. The salt lines burst into fire.
Sheila gasped, falling to her knees as the magic slammed through her like lightning.
The pendant floated above her chest, glowing white.
"Good gods," Heeyoung whispered. "She's already syncing with the relic."
Hyunsoo stepped into the circle. "She's drawing on raw lunar force without shielding—Sheila, you have to let go!"
"I—I can't!" she gasped. "It's inside me—it's too much—"
Her back arched as light erupted from her spine, drawing the crescent marks in glowing lines along her shoulder blades.
The marks were alive.
Heeyoung raised her staff. "I'll bind the excess—!"
"No," Hyunsoo interrupted sharply. "Let her finish. She has to know what it feels like."
The energy built to a peak—and then broke.
Sheila collapsed. The room dimmed. The light faded.
And everything went quiet.
---
☽
When she woke, Hyunsoo was beside her.
"You didn't die," he said softly.
"That's a relief," she croaked.
He smiled, barely.
She sat up slowly, muscles sore, heart thudding. "What… what just happened?"
"You channeled raw moonlight," Heeyoung said from across the room. "Untrained. Unshielded. And you didn't shatter."
"Which means what?"
"Which means," Hyunsoo said, "you're more powerful now than you ever were in your past life."
Sheila stared at her hands. They were still glowing faintly.
"I didn't know I had that inside me."
"You always did," Hyunsoo said, voice gentle now. "You just forgot. Now it's waking up."
She looked at him. Really looked. The memory of their dream-kiss surfaced again, unbidden.
"You said you were my consort," she whispered. "That we were… together."
He tensed. "Yes."
"And now?"
A long silence.
He finally said, "That's not up to fate anymore. It's up to you."
---
☽
That night, alone in her room, Sheila stared out her window at the full moon.
She no longer felt human. Not entirely.
Something inside her had cracked open, and the light that spilled out wasn't just magic. It was history. Identity. Power.
And yet... loneliness.
She lifted the pendant. It glowed in her palm.
For the first time in her life, Sheila Nam didn't feel broken.
She felt dangerous.
And the world? The world was about to feel her, too.