The weight of Aric Valde's words lingered in the air long after he had disappeared into the shadows. Sena stood with Caelum and the rest of the group, the silence between them almost suffocating. Even the wind seemed to have stilled, as though the desert itself were holding its breath, waiting for something to break the tension.
For the first time since their journey began, Sena felt the crushing weight of the task ahead. The fragments of the Moonmark, the power she was meant to wield—they were no longer just tools in some distant prophecy. They were the key to changing everything, to breaking the curse that had held her people captive for centuries.
But she wasn't sure she was ready. The power inside her, the same power that had surged so violently before, was still there. It pulsed ben
