THE ROOT OF RUIN

The stone staircase spiraled down into a silence so thick it choked the air.

Selene's boots struck the steps with dull thuds, her sword strapped to her back like a second spine. The deeper they went, the colder it became, the kind of cold that crept into your blood and didn't leave.

Above them, the shaft narrowed until the pale light from the ruined well was just a pinpoint in the distance. Then it vanished completely.They were swallowed.

Darius pulled a small flame into his palm. Not fire witchlight. Dim, bluish, and silent. It lit the way ahead just enough to reveal the narrow corridor that opened up at the base of the stairs. Ancient stone stretched forward, ribbed with twisted roots and marked with more of the carvings they'd seen above.

But now Selene could read some of them.

Not words exactly, but meanings. Feelings.

Grief. Betrayal. Sacrifice.

The hallways turned, split, then merged again, winding like veins beneath the earth. Neris moved with certainty, fingers brushing the walls as they walked, as if the stone itself were guiding her.

"This place was a sanctuary once," she said softly. "Before the blood purges. Before the betrayals."Selene didn't speak.

Her mark itched under her skin, pulsing faintly with each step. The sword on her back responded in kind, as if the walls were calling it home.

After what felt like hours, they reached a sealed archway. A thick slab of stone, embedded with three crescent sigils.

The first was faintly glowing.The second pulsed in time with Selene's heartbeat. The third was black.Neris stepped forward. "This is it."Darius reached for the edge of the slab, testing the stone. "It won't move."

"It won't," Neris said. "Not until she's ready."

Selene stepped forward slowly.She didn't feel ready. Not in the way people usually meant. But the longer she stood there, the clearer it became this seal wasn't waiting for readiness.

It was waiting for truth.She touched the third mark.

A jolt shot through her hand, up her arm, down her spine. Not pain something deeper. Like her very blood had been asked a question.And her body answered.

A searing flash of memory rushed through her: a woman with hair like firelight and eyes full of sorrow. Her mother, kneeling in this very place. Her blood dripping onto the stone as she whispered a name Selene had never heard before.

The name of the first Moonblood Queen.

The stone trembled.A low, grinding sound echoed as the third crescent flared white.

Then the door split down the center.

Beyond it, the tunnel opened into a vast underground chamber.

Raventhorn.What remained of it.

Pillars stretched up into a dark ceiling, their tops long crumbled. Shattered stained glass lined the walls, their shards glowing faintly in the moss-choked cracks. In the center of the chamber stood a circular platform covered in ash and runes older even than the ones on the sword.

Selene stepped forward, drawn without hesitation.

The moment she crossed onto the platform, the mark on her chest blazed to life.

All three crescents ignited.

The runes beneath her feet reacted instantly glowing silver, then red, then a brilliant moonlit white.

Neris gasped behind her. "It's not just a seal. It's a convergence."

"What does that mean?" Nimra asked, voice tight."It means this place doesn't just hold her power. It amplifies it."

Selene swayed slightly.The chamber spun.

And then she wasn't there anymore.

She was standing in a vision, a memory but not her own.

It was raining. The skies black. Screams echoed through the forest as flames rose in the distance. She saw her mother again, this time running, cloak soaked, blade in hand. Beside her was another woman taller, with dark braids and a scar across her jaw.

"This isn't just about survival," the woman was shouting. "We need to protect the line. The sword, the seals everything!"

Selene felt her mother's voice in her own throat.

"They'll come for the girl if we fail.""She's not even born yet!", "She will be. And if she is, she'll be hunted."

Then the scene shattered.

Selene gasped, knees hitting the platform.

Darius was beside her instantly. "What did you see?""They knew," she whispered. "They knew what I would be. Before I was even born."Neris nodded. "The prophecy began long before you existed. The Obsidian isn't hunting you—it's guarding something. Keeping you from it."

"What?" Selene asked.Neris met her eyes."Your throne."

The chamber shook beneath them.

And then a sound tore through the walls.

Not a growl. Not a howl.A scream.From above.

Darius turned toward the stairway, face pale.

"They've found us."Selene stood slowly, the sword in her hand again.

No fear this time.Only certainty.She turned to them all.

"If they want the Moonblood dead," she said, voice steady, "then they can come and try." And then the mark on her chest flared again and this time, she didn't fight it.

She let it burn.