LUNA'S LAST TEARS

THE FIRST AWAKENING

Episode 3:

The forest was quiet, too quiet.

Luna leaned against a tree, her chest still heaving as she tried to steady her breath. The glow that had burst from her body moments ago had faded, leaving her weak and trembling. She stared at her hands, half-expecting to see the silver light flicker again. But there was nothing, only the faint outline of scratches from branches and the tremor in her fingers.

“What happened back there?” she whispered, more to herself than to Elias.

He crouched in front of her, his expression torn between fear and wonder. “Luna, I saw it with my own eyes. You… you drove them away. Whatever that was,it saved us.”

Her stomach twisted. Save them, maybe. But what about her mother? What about the villagers who had once whispered curses behind their hands? If they had seen her tonight, there would be no whispers. Only fire, fear, and exile.

“I didn’t mean to,” she murmured, voice cracking. “I don’t even know how it happened.”

Elias shook his head. “You don’t have to understand it right now. What matters is that you’re alive. And we’re together.”

Together. The word gave her a small measure of comfort. Elias had always been her anchor, the one person who saw her as more than the cursed child of the blood moon. But even he couldn’t hide the flicker of unease in his eyes when he looked at her hands.

“Elias,” she said softly, “are you afraid of me?”

He hesitated,too long. Then he reached out and touched her hand. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t. But fear doesn’t mean I’ll leave you. I swore I’d stand by you, remember? Cursed or chosen, you’re still Luna.”

Tears stung her eyes, but she blinked them away. She wanted to believe his words. She wanted to believe that she was more than the omen of ruin the elders had named her.

But the forest seemed to whisper otherwise.

The wind shifted, carrying a sound that made her blood run cold. Not footsteps this time, but whispers,soft, echoing, impossible to place. They slithered through the trees, brushing against her mind like icy fingers.

Blood Moon’s child… your tears will shape the empire.

She froze, her grip tightening on Elias’s arm. “Did you hear that?”

He frowned. “Hear what?”

“The voice.” She looked around wildly, but there was no one there. Only the rustle of leaves, the sigh of branches. “It said” She cut herself off. If Elias hadn’t heard it, maybe it was only in her mind. Maybe she was unraveling.

But deep down, she knew better.

Elias studied her face, concerned about darkening his features. “Luna, you’re exhausted. We need to find shelter, rest for a while. Then we’ll figure out what to do.”

She nodded, though the whispers still echoed in her head. Each step they took into the depths of the forest felt heavier, like the trees themselves were watching. She didn’t tell Elias what the voice had said. She couldn’t. Not yet.

Because if it was true,if her tears could shape the empire,then every choice she made, every sorrow she carried, was more dangerous than she’d ever imagined.