light. The memory of fire still danced behind her eyes, the sacred twirling blaze that had flared during the interrupted mating ritual, wild and uncontained

ried her forward through the twilight haze li

edge of comprehension. With each turn she took, the streets twisted tighter, spiraling inward, as though guiding her somewhere hidden. Lanterns flickered from open

but there was a thickness to it, like the atmosphere after a spell has been cast. The wind carried whispers, at first indistinguishable from the ru

wind speaking

turned her head s

ulsed in harmony with something deeper, something primal. It was not language in the way she understood it, but she co

eath her palm with a gentle hum. It was as if the city itself rememb

ls warped by time and kissed by vines. At the center stood a worn pedestal, as ancient as the city itself, its surface smoothed by centuries of rain and

led around her like a breath, curling through her hair,

esitant but compelled. And when she finally made contact, the carvings reacted. A dull pulse echoed t

softly, embers s

consuming. A glacier cracks open to release a buried city. Water folding back like silk to reveal a temple hidden beneath th

he voices

eaning bloomed in Elowen's mind

hey strain at their chains. Only the marke

her. She sank to the ground, her breath caught in her throat, her heart gal

to speak. But she had no words. Only questions. Who were the guardians the whispers had spoken of? Why did the elements feel fra

silence with another s

like a cyclone of memory. Elowen's hair whipped around her face, a

visions; cle

ifted as a tidal wave bowed before them. A circle of guardians, hands joined, chanting beneath a blood-red moon. And finall

city was crumbling under the weight of its forgotten history. Befo

e wind

ce re

ing awakened. Her breath came slowly, but steadily. She looked back at the pedestal. The faint glow of the runes wa

welcoming. The moon above emerged from behind a veil of clouds, casting pale si

he path ahead was unclear, shrouded in the same mystery as the court

message clung to her bones like

ughout Nocturnis and beyond. And she would have to find them. Because something was coming.

ed, as if no vision had ever occurred, as if it were merely a ruin. But she knew better. She had hear

t it was no longer the silence of slum

ne. Her heart pulsed with a new rhythm. Every shadow that flickered across a wall, every gust of wind that to

wasn't

anym

owen had learned to listen. Her spine stiffened. Her breath hitched. She didn't sto

fall. Delibe

trying to hid

a symbol glinting from their chest, a crescent moon broken into fragments, etched in obsidi

ent

Bound

uardians. Or executioners.

aid, voice low and rough like smoke over i

de. "There's no safe

head. "You should not

t ask pe

pa

why we're watc

merged. Silent. Cloaked. Surrounding her

the silver coin now hidden in her cloak's

er. "The flame is awake again. An

it," the female Sentin

en asked, voice calm

ered a small bow. "That de

in perfect silence and vanished into the dark, no fo

still a mo

ept wa

ime, s

just bein

being

dg

he would need to decide who she w