CHAPTER 56
1101 Words
It had been seven days since Thea vanished.
No one spoke of it. Not directly. Not in council halls or in whispers between guards. No formal notice. No search. Just silence—like the Hollow had devoured her, and the world moved on to smoother lies.
But Nessa hadn’t forgotten.
The healer walked alone that morning, boots crunching lightly across the dew-soaked forest. Her basket was empty. No herbs. No ointments. Just a blade tucked into her belt and a name circling her mind like a storm.
Find the man beyond the ruins. He knows what the council won’t say.
Thea had whispered that days ago, her hand tight on Nessa’s wrist. It had sounded like a final instruction. Now it felt like a warning.
Nessa passed beyond the forest’s southern border, beyond the marked lands of Everglade, where the soil turned black with forgotten magic and the trees leaned too closely together. The ruins came into view—a crumbling old estate with spires snapped in half, moss clinging to what had once been marble.
This place wasn’t marked on any maps. Which meant it mattered.
She entered through a fractured arch, hand on her blade. The air was heavy, the kind of quiet that suggested something was watching. She moved slowly, pushing past vines and broken stone until she reached a half-collapsed corridor.
That’s when she heard him.
“You walk like someone being followed.”
Nessa turned sharply. A man leaned against a sunken pillar, arms folded, gray streaks in his beard and a long scar cutting across his brow. His eyes, dark and too calm, locked onto hers.
“You’re Rael,” she said.
“I was wondering if she’d actually send you.”
“She didn’t.” Nessa’s voice was firm. “She’s gone.”
Rael’s expression didn’t change. “Then you came looking on your own.”
“I came because things are unraveling. Because Elise is being erased. And because Thea trusted you enough to mention your name with her dying breath.”
Rael pushed off the pillar. “I told Thea years ago that the Moonbreathers would be scapegoats. They don’t want truth—they want a vessel to use, then discard.”
Nessa stepped closer. “What are they hiding?”
Rael didn’t answer. Instead, he gestured to the shadows behind him. She followed him down a narrow passage, into what had once been a library, though now only dust and ash remained. At the far end stood a locked chest, its edges lined with runes that shimmered faintly.
Rael unlocked it.
Inside was a leather-bound journal, pages yellowed with time. Nessa reached for it, flipping through quickly. Symbols. Notes. Sketches. And then—a girl.
Drawn in charcoal. Pale eyes. Marks on her arms. Crescent-like scars.
“Elise?” she asked.
“No,” Rael said. “Another. Years before her. Another Moonbreather. One they never told you about.”
Nessa stared at the page. “Why?”
Rael exhaled. “Because she died. And not from the Hollow. From the council.”
Nessa went still. “They killed her?”
“They broke her. Mentally. Spiritually. Shut her away and pushed until she shattered. Then buried her name. Because it would prove they didn’t protect their own. That they feared what she might become.”
She closed the journal slowly, fingers tightening around the leather. “And Elise?”
“She’s walking the same path. Isolated. Used. And once she stops being useful, they’ll do to her what they did to the first.”
Nessa looked up. “She doesn’t even have her powers back.”
“She might not need them,” Rael said. “If the Hollow wants her… it’ll take her whether she’s ready or not.”
Across the realm, Mira moved with intent.
She had left Everglade at dusk, traveling light and fast through the northern trails. Word of the binding had traveled too far, too fast. Everyone was waiting for Elise to fall apart.
But Mira wasn’t.
She wasn’t loyal to tradition or council scripts. She was loyal to truth. To the people who bled for the realm while others played politics.
She reached the ridge just before dawn, where the snowpacks met the wind-blasted stone of the Greyhorn cliffs. There, the mountain scouts waited.
They hadn’t bowed to Everglade in years. Mira had hoped that meant their ears were still open.
The scout at the edge narrowed his eyes. “You’ve come far.”
“I’ve come with news,” Mira said, stepping forward. “And a warning.”
She passed the sealed scroll into his hands. He opened it silently. His brow furrowed.
“Why bring this here?” he asked. “This isn’t our war.”
“Not yet,” Mira said. “But if the Hollow stirs again, and the council’s too busy playing house with Everglade’s daughter, you’ll feel it. We all will.”
The scout was silent for a long time. Then he nodded once and disappeared into the cliffside tunnels.
That same morning, in the east wing of Whitemoon, Kai sat alone.
He hadn’t slept—not properly. The echo of the crowd’s cheers from the night before still clung to him like smoke. Elise hadn’t looked at him. Not once. And he hadn’t looked at her, because if he did, he might’ve broken.
He heard a knock but didn’t answer.
It was his sister this time—Myla.
She stepped in without waiting. “Do you want to know what you looked like yesterday?”
Kai didn’t answer.
“Like a statue. Dead-eyed. Like you were watching someone else’s life happen.”
“I was.”
“Then stop it,” she said. “You stood there and let them bind your name to someone who isn’t her. That’s not strength, Kai. That’s surrender.”
Kai looked away. “You think I didn’t try?”
“I think you gave up,” she said. “And I think Elise doesn’t deserve that.”
She left him in silence.
And for the first time in a long time, Kai felt afraid—not of battle, or beasts, but of what would happen when Elise finally stopped hoping for him.
Far beneath Everglade, where roots no longer grew, something cracked.
The Hollow—quiet for weeks—stirred faintly. Not loud. Not violent.
But awake.
And somewhere deep within its pulse, a flicker moved. A shimmer of memory. Of pain. Of silver-blue light.
The girl the council had erased was not truly gone.
And she was no longer alone.
- Writer
