ia sat cross-legged before the Council's fire, its orange light flickering across her face. The cloak they had given her felt he

e-handled knife with a whetstone. The

e were others,

blood line is rare. The gift is recessive,

must i

urned toward the fire, distant. "Be

ay. He was tall, stooped with age, his long hair braided with bone

ly. "This is Elder Myr

. "I've waited a long tim

. "You knew

And her mother before her. All of them marked. All of them hun

ckled louder a

wine. He unrolled it across a flat stone, revealing a hand-painted mural

re the Firstborn. Wolves who walked as men. Guardians of the Veil.

forward, hea

ive Founders, those who forged the pact that hides us still. But one by o

kin where she'd been cut during th

e? Why

s have shifted. The Burned Ones are m

prop

ed to th

the Hollow howls empty, the market shall return. A dau

, flames rising high in

. "I-I'm not

"No savior ever b

-

ed her to t

to a stairwell carved deep into the earth. The walls

tories of their kind, etched in spirals, glyphs, and symb

mmered, revealing an old tapestr

her arms raised, a silver crescent on her shoulder.

hat..

hat once was. The lines bl

The threads seemed t

with all this?

Your blood remembers

-

, her drea

licking the trees. Beside her, a white wolf snarled.

, voices rose-scr

od! Moo

p. The mark on her s

f the Hollow, a howl

estiny a

ma Mmesoma Perpetual