Chapter 22 – Shadows in the Sigil
The stars were still out when Luna stirred.
She hadn't really slept. Just sat—watching her pendant pulse in her hand like a second heartbeat.
Silver.
Then… not.
A thread of violet now swam beneath the cracked surface, weaving through the glow like a secret she couldn't hide anymore.
She turned it in her palm, hoping it might stop.
It didn't.
---
> "You ever get the feeling something inside you isn't yours anymore?"
Zeph's voice was quiet. No joke this time. Just honesty.
Luna didn't look up. "It's like I'm unraveling," she whispered. "Piece by piece. And the worst part?"
She closed her fingers around the pendant.
> "It doesn't even scare me anymore. I'm just… tired."
Zeph crouched beside her, not saying anything right away. Then, softly:
> "Tired doesn't mean you're weak."
She looked at him then.
> "You think I'm strong?"
> "No," he said. "I think you're real. You don't fake it when it hurts. That takes guts."
For a second, her chest tightened.
> "Thanks," she said. "Even if you're just saying that to keep me from burning you again."
Zeph smirked. "That's only part of the reason."
---
Riven approached soon after, footsteps slow but purposeful.
Luna tensed without meaning to.
He noticed.
> "You don't have to flinch around me," he said.
> "You looked at me like I was dangerous," she said quietly.
> "No," he corrected. "I looked at you like someone who's becoming something—and might not know what that something is yet."
She didn't reply. Not right away.
> "I saw him, Riven. My father."
> "The vision?"
She nodded. "He was there with the Seer. Talking about me like I wasn't even a person. Just… a path. A thing to open the Void."
Her voice cracked.
> "He called me a door."
Riven stepped closer. His hand hovered near her shoulder, then settled.
> "Then it's our job to make sure no one walks through it."
Behind them, Zeph muttered, "Maybe start by locking that door and throwing the key into a volcano."
Luna's lips twitched. Almost a smile. Almost.
---
They left the ruins later that morning.
The path was rough—broken stones, burnt soil—but the air had shifted.
It smelled different now.
Not smoke.
Not earth.
Something... wrong.
They didn't get far before Riven stopped short, his hand up.
> "Don't move."
Luna followed his gaze—and felt her breath catch.
A creature stood in the clearing ahead.
Small. Rabbit-sized. But wrong.
Its body shimmered like oil on water, limbs too long, movements jerky like a puppet with cut strings.
> "Void-touched," Riven hissed. "They left this behind."
Zeph took a step back. "Is it watching us or glitching through reality? 'Cause I can't tell."
Luna stepped forward.
> "It's bleeding symbols," she whispered.
And it was. Markings across its back—not carved, but burned into the flesh. Cult runes.
Suddenly, it snapped its head toward her.
Not a rabbit.
Not anything.
Its face was a smooth sheet of bone. No eyes. No mouth.
And then it lunged.
---
Luna didn't think.
She just moved.
Fire burst from her palm—but too strong. Too fast.
The flame caught the air and twisted, spiraling into violet before it struck.
The creature let out a soundless shriek as it burned—not like something dying, but like something trying to remember how.
It collapsed in a mess of ash and charred ink.
Luna's knees buckled.
> "I didn't mean to do that," she breathed.
> "But you did," Riven said. "And it was the only way."
Zeph crouched next to the remains, poking the ash with a stick. "Okay, weirdest breakfast I've ever skipped."
He glanced at her.
> "But seriously… you okay?"
Luna stared at the mark burned into the ground where the creature had fallen. Not just a scorch.
A spiral.
The same one from the hidden sigil.
---
Later that evening, they camped by a ruined stone archway—one of the old border markers from a forgotten nation.
Luna traced the faded carvings with her fingers.
Symbols of a kingdom that had once worshipped the Elemental Kings.
Now just rubble.
> "There's talk of the kings stirring again in the West," Riven said softly, behind her. "People feel the air change. Rivers flood. Fires burn blue. They're afraid."
> "Of me?"
> "Of what you might awaken."
She nodded slowly. "Then let them be afraid."
Zeph leaned against the stone, chewing on a wild apple he'd found.
> "We're building quite the resume: Destroyed shrine. Disturbed void sigil. Accidental firebombs. Oh, and monster rabbits."
Luna gave him a tired look.
> "Do you ever not talk?"
> "Only when I'm dead. Or asleep. And even then, it's questionable."
But when she laughed—really laughed this time—it was soft, and tired, but real.
---
That night, she held the pendant up to the moonlight.
It had changed again.
The crack was deeper now—but in the center, two colors coexisted.
Silver and violet.
Opposites. Fighting for space.
She whispered to it.
> "I don't know what you're turning me into."
Her fingers brushed the curve of the spiral now engraved into the stone nearby.
> "But if I'm the door…"
She looked up at the moon.
> "I'll decide what gets through."
And this time, the pendant didn't flicker.
It pulsed. Like it understood.
---
To be continued…