Story 1056: March of the Mourning Star

When the Mourning Star rose over the Ashen Expanse, it wept crimson tears. The sky cracked like glass, leaking shadow and sorrow into the world below. Elders in dust-choked temples screamed and clawed their eyes out. Birds flew in reverse. The dead began to hum.

The world remembered her name: Calvyrna, the Morning Queen turned Mourning Star.

Once a celestial guardian, she had tried to stop the spread of the Eldritch Blight. But when the stars grew infected, she burned with them—exiled, cursed, and cast down. Her light became sorrow. Her return was never meant to happen.

But return she did.

It began with the children.

In the town of Thornmarrow, they stopped dreaming. Instead, they chanted in unison at midnight:

“She walks in lace of ash and flame. Open the path. Open the name.”

Their parents locked their doors. The priests burned their beds. But the children only smiled, their eyes silver as starfire.

A comet struck the northern cliffs.

The veil tore.