The great creature stood at the edge of the firelight when they gathered, her deep, intelligent eyes fixed on Luna with an urgency that hadn't been present in their previous, gentler exchanges. The moment Luna approached, the wave of intention struck harder than before, images cascading faster than she could fully process — the Ashwood Shrine, not as it stood now, cracked and broken, but whole, three centuries younger, alive with a golden light Luna had never witnessed in the ruin they'd found. And within that vision, five shapes and one woman, standing not before an altar demanding sacrifice, but within a circle of their own choosing, hands joined, something passing between all six of them that looked, unmistakably, like an exchange rather than a debt.
"That's the original binding," Corv
