THE LUNA HE THREW AWAY

Aldric’s Move 1

We had barely left camp when the runner found us. He crashed out of the bramble, looking like he was being chased, cheeks red and hair stuck to his forehead with moisture and rain. He was young, hardly more than a kid, thin as a sapling and all elbows, the kind you’d never expect to last a day outside the kitchens. He ran straight for Cass, not even slowing when Fen stepped in front of him with his hand on his blade.

“They let Jax out,” the boy gasped, doubled over, hands on his knees. “Council says he was an unwilling accomplice. He’s free. They want you to know.”

Cass looked at the boy, suspicion in every line of her face. “That’s not mercy. That’s a move.”

He nodded, pressing a second note into my hand, his fingers shaking. “He said to tell you- ‘Don’t believe the first door you see. Sometimes a cage looks like freedom.’ Then he ran. Didn’t stop.”

I read the message, my heart beating fast. Jax was free. But the note set my teeth on edge. Fen moved closer, eyes sharp as glass.

“They want you distracted,” Fen said, jaw tight. “They want you off-balance. They want you to think you’ve already won, so you don’t see the knife coming.”

Kael put a hand on my shoulder, gentle but anchoring. “Don’t take the bait, Lira. Jax is smart. If he says not to trust it, don’t.”

But I was already shaking, not from fear, but from a colder certainty. I knew Aldric enough to understand his motives: he never offered freedom without expecting something valuable in return, and every gesture from him was a calculated move to test my resolve or manipulate my choices.

We kept walking with our heads down while the tension grew between us. The rain started again. Relentless, steady, it soaked my clothes and made my skin itch. Every shadow felt like a threat. Each sound made Fen tense; Cass’s hand strayed to her knife.

We were two hours from the Hollow when the next runner found us. This one was older, an Omega woman with a limp and a face scarred by old burns. She handed Cass a folded slip of paper, eyes never leaving mine.

“Aldric says the Rite will proceed,” Cass read, voice expressionless. “He will provide Thornridge as a witness. He expects Lira Vale to meet him alone before the moon rises.

I felt the a shudder rippled through me at the mention of the Rite. Every Omega in the Hollow grew up with the terror of that ancient judgment- a midnight assembly, a choice that carved you open or swallowed you whole. Pass, and you belonged. Fail, and you became a ghost. Tonight, Aldric was holding my fate in his bruised, unflinching hands. She turned and limped back into the woods, her message delivered, her gaze empty. She didn’t look back.

Cass swore, low and vicious, a curse that tasted of smoke and old pain. Fen’s fists clenched. Kael just looked at me, his face unreadable, waiting for my answer.

I read the message twice, then once more, feeling its weight digging deep into my bones, each word pressing in like a vice, the crushing ache of being called to answer for a crime I never chose. “I’ll decide tonight,” I said, voice flat. “When I can think.”

We set up camp at the edge of the Hollow. The air remained heavy with tension, and the darkness pressed in from all sides. The Hollow felt different, as if it was holding its breath, waiting for something to happen.

Cass circled the edge of camp, muttering to herself, checking the lines she’d drawn in the dirt. Again. Again. Fen sat with his back against a tree, knife in his lap, eyes searching shadows for threats only he could see. Kael tried to calm everyone- his voice tight, hands never still. He was just as tense as the rest of us.

I sat by the fire, turning the letter over and over in my hands. The paper was soft from too many nights pressed to my chest. I thought about Jax and how we used to sneak bread from the kitchens, his laughter sounding in those dark halls. He taught me how to pick locks, how to leave my fear behind, and how to believe in escape. I thought about my mother, how she learned to live with silence after my father disappeared, how she sang lullabies to herself at night when she thought I was asleep, and how, on the day she finally spoke again, her voice shook but stayed steady as she told me what it had cost her. I remembered the girl I used to be, the one who thought she could survive by staying small, not asking for anything, and keeping out of the way.

But I wasn’t that timid, shrunken girl anymore. I could feel the old fear splintering inside me, replaced by something fierce and new. Aldric waiting for me in a dark room, certain he could break me like he had broken everyone else. I remembered the stories Cass told about Sovereigns who changed the world, and the ones who failed and were forgotten. I thought about the Rite, the three witnesses, and how the world could change in a single night if you pushed hard enough.