Chapter Nine: Echoes Of Duskmoor
1198 Words
CHAPTER NINE: ECHOES OF DUSKMOOR.
- - -
I. The Journal.
They found it behind the false wall in Marley’s attic—brittle, leather-bound, sealed with wax that bore the digit of a crescent moon wrapped in thorns.
Marley dusted it carefully. “This isn’t Crescent Hollow’s crest,” she murmured.
“No”, Karaith said. Her fingers hovered over the wax. “It’s older.”
The journal crackled as she opened it, faded ink, elegant handwriting , pages warped by time. The first entry was dated year 537, post-fall.
>” To the next bearer of the bloodline—if any yet remain…”
Karaith’s breath caught. The ink shimmered faintly in the candlelight—just enough to be noticed, just enough to feel alive. She turned the page. Another passage sprawled across the yellowing paper, this one more frantic:
>”They hunted us. Not beasts, but kin. Wolves turned feral, stripped of the moon’s grace. We fled to the borderlands, where night and day blur. That is where the veil is thinnest, that is where the sanctuary lies—and where we left the key.”
Marley leaned over her shoulders, her breath stirring the dust as said she “sanctuary.”
Karaith nodded slowly saying “A place out of time, maybe. A place they went to sleep, or to hide.”
They read deeper into the night, the pages filled with strange symbols and half-legible warnings. One entry stood out—written in a different handwriting, jagged, rushed:
>”He was born under the broken sky. Marked. The beast stirs already in his cradle. Gods help us —the fire sings in him.
A chill crept into the room.
“Whoever he was,” Karaith whispered and she continued,”he was like me.
Marley glanced at her and said “ or like someone you are about to meet.”
II. The Dream.
Karaith had dreamed of the same place since she was a child. A field of silver ash. A tree with no leaves. And a sky split in two—one side day, the other night, the horizon like a scar.
She never saw anyone in it—until now.
This time, the field was humming.
This time, the figure stood beneath the ash tree.
Not a threat. Not a ghost. Just a boy—tall, dark curls,barefoot,with a strange stillness in his eyes. She couldn’t make out his face but she knew he was watching her.
When he spoke, his voice echoed through her ribs.
“Do you remember me?”
Karaith opened her mouth to answer but the dream folded in on itself like paper.
She woke up gasping , heart hammering, her blankets tangled like vines. Tha air smelled faintly of smoke—or memory. Outside the window, the moon hung low and swollen, veiled in silver mist.
Marley already awake, sitting by the fire. “You saw him, didn’t you ?”
Karaith nodded, not trusting her voice.
“He is calling back,” Marley said. “He doesn’t know it yet—but he is starting to remember.”
Karaith sank into the chair opposite her.
“The journal says they left a key. In the borderlands.”
“The sanctuary,” Marley murmured. “You think he is part of that?”
“I think we both are.” Said Karaith.
The fire cracked shadows danced across the walls like old spirits.
Marley’s eyes narrowed as she said,”if the Duskmoor line is waking up…we are going to need more than dreams. We need to find that place.”
Karaith looked down at her palm. A faint burn shimmered just beneath her skin—the same crescent sigil from the journal. It had not been there yesterday.
“I think the dreams are a map” Karaith said as she continued. “And he is the other half of it.”
- - -
III. Eli’s Vision
The first time it happened. Eli was shelving books after hours at the university library. A headache hit like a thunderclap. The world spun. And everything stopped.
The lights flickered. The air changed. The paper in his hands turned to dust—and the dust twisted into words in mid—air:
>”Dusk does not fear the dark.”
He staggered back. The floor felt like stone beneath his feet. A forest pressed around him—real, but not. Old trees. Cold wind. And fireflies that spelled strange symbols in the air.
Then a voice whispered:
“You have slept long enough,heir.”
He blinked—and the world snapped back. But something inside him didn’t.
Later that night, he found a mark on his skin—just above his heart. A crescent moon, etched in silver like it had always been there.
He stared at the mirror, heart pounding hard in his chest.
And for the first time in his life, Eli Duskmoor felt the beast beneath his bones stir.
He didn’t sleep. Instead, he walked through the city’s edge until the lights thinned and the fog rolled in.
He kept seeing flickers in his peripheral vision—branches where they were none , glowing symbols that vanished when he looked directly. He kept hearing things in the rustle of leaves: whispers in a tongue he did not recognize, but somehow understood.
By dawn he was standing at the threshold of the old woods behind campus. His hands burned—faint but constant.
There was something in those trees. A call. A pull.
He turned back once, to see if anyone had followed. But the world behind him already looked too far away.
As he stepped into the woods a name fell from his lips—soft, unbidden:
“Karaith…”
He didn’t know why he said it.
Only that it felt like remembering.
He wandered why he said a name he never knew and who the owner was.
Meanwhile back at the bookstore…
Karaith felt a call, like someone mentioned her name and she turned to check but there was no one there.
Marley came down from the attic wondering what Karaith was thinking about and out of curiosity she asked. “What are you thinking about, Karaith?”
“I thought I heard someone calling out my name.”
“But there’s no one here. Please snap out of your thoughts. We really need to find the sanctuary.” Said Marley.
Karaith nodded slowly.
Meanwhile back at Crescent Hollow…
Logan stormwind, his loyal beta Ceal, his sharp eyed guard Mira and the healer Elias had began their rebellion against the forces Celeste was forming.
Mira gathered the most trusted warriors that served the Goddess but Celeste’s army was stronger than this so Logan planned a secret meeting with the elders and Alphas who were against Celeste and they all together brought the best and most trusted warriors to gain back the hollow.
“We must not allow her to take over the hollow,we will try our best to save it.” Said Ceal. “Do not worry about the weapons alpha Logan,we will get those too,”said the elders
- Writer
