The Oath of the Eclipse

“The wound is a mark given by the moon god,when the silver light sprinkles the rainforest,I will cross over life and death to reunite with you” --Siamese Ancient Wolf Proverbs Wedge-The Oracle Awakens The blood-colored moonlight pierced through the dome of the rainforest,cutting thousands of silver blades on the curtain of palm leaves.Twelve scavenging night lords suddenly whistled in unison,startling the corpse-flies that roamed among the aerial roots of the strangling banyan into falling,swarms of phosphorescent insects bred by the black sorcerer,now piecing together the glyph for the ancient Cambodian word for“blood debt.” “Double the dose of Holy Dew Grass!” The old priest Kalon's tattooed fingers crushed three purple berries,and the juice,coated in gold-speckled powder,crashed into the crevice of Maya's lips.The rhinoceros-horn candlesticks at the corners of the bamboo bed suddenly flared up with three feet of indigo flame,reflecting the topography of the Ramayana scrolls on the wall as if they were distorted like living creatures-that was the“Soul Binding Spell”written by the first priest of the Silvermoon Clan with the venom of the King Cobra three hundred years ago. Maya smelled two distinct blood scents in the chaos:one was the putrid sweetness of dragon's blood resin in the priest's palm,and the other came from the thousand-year-old pool of white bones washed by a blood-colored waterfall a hundred feet away.She tried to roll her eyes,but glimpsed the silver threads traveling through her pupils in the emerald bronze mirror were weaving into a mandala pattern-a sign of the full awakening of the highest pact of the Southeast Asian werewolf pack,the Binding of Life and Death. “If the Bride of the Silver Moon Clan falls on the Blood Moon...”Kalon chanted the incantation in an ancient Burmese tune,his withered fingertips tracing over the crescent birthmark at Maya's collarbone,“The Mekong River will back up for three hundred miles,and the idol of Bayan will weep tears of blood.” Memory fragments wrapped in excruciating pain pierced the barrier of consciousness: The sharp claws of the silver wolf that tore through the night sky at the moment of the fall,the frost condensed between the wolf's fur cutting her cheek;the fang marks of the Cambodian Blood Wolf King on the fletchings of the talisman-wrapped poisoned arrows as they pierced through her chest;and the temperature of that embrace-the chill of the thousand-year-old Wolf King's inner elixir in Anantha Silvermoon's clavicle,which actually resonated with her birthmark... “Boom!” The twelve strings of crocodile-toothed wind chimes hanging from the bamboo beams suddenly exploded,and Kalon's cloudy pupils suddenly contracted.He saw that the newly emerged lotus tattoo on the back of Maya's neck was oozing silver blood,and the liquid was snaking into the Siamese word for“Kingslayer”on the bamboo mat-a reappearance of the prophecy in which the first Bride of the Eclipse had slain the Fallen Wolf King. Outside the bamboo building came the uneasy stampede of the elephants,and Maya heard a double heartbeat in the midst of the excruciating pain.The throbbing sound belonging to Ananta pierced through the rain,wrapped in the echo of pathos characteristic of the ruins of Angkor Wat.As she struggled to lift her fingers,the emerald bronze mirror suddenly reflected a scene thousands of miles away: Among the broken walls of the temple of Bengmile,Ananta was being entangled by three blood pythons.The silver wolf studs between his ears were mostly broken,and the moonstone on his dark ribbon,which symbolized the authority of the patriarch,was covered in dust.The most horrifying thing was the newly added wound at his waist and stomach-the shape of the claw marks actually matched the Mayan birthmark exactly,and highly poisonous mandalas grew where the silver blood dripped. “Remember,your life belongs to the Silver Moon Clan.” The remembered whisper materialized,and Maya saw Ananta's silhouette emerge from the bronze mirror.His gilt wolf pupils reflected the entwined soul threads of the two men,and those silver threads were being eroded by an invisible black mist-the curse from the tomb of the Cambodian Blood Wolf King had spread along the'Binding of Life and Death'contract to Maya's heart. Caron suddenly slit his wrist and dripped blood onto Maya's brow,“The tragedy of the first generation clan leader and the Bride of the Eclipse three hundred years ago must never be repeated!”The moment the blood touched the dragon's blood tree resin,the runes on the four walls of the bamboo building swam like living snakes,intertwining in the void to form the“Sin Destruction Formation”recorded in the Mahabharata. Maya saw a vision in the strong light of the formation: She stood at the altar of the Wolf God wearing a blood-red wedding dress,with Ananta's sharp teeth piercing her carotid artery;below the altar were thousands of silver wolf skeletons,each with the fangs of the Cambodian Blood Wolf King stuck in its brow;and in the distance,a blood-colored waterfall flowed backward into a pillar of blood,and at the bottom of the pool floated the prophecy inscribed with the words,“When the bride's pupils form a ring of silver threads,the Wolf King will die at the hand of the beloved”... “Ka-ching...” A spiderweb of cracks suddenly appeared in the emerald bronze mirror,and Kalon was horrified to find that each c***k corresponded precisely to a meridian in Maya's body.When the last c***k penetrated the mirror,the entire rainforest resounded with the sobbing prophecy of the first Bride of the Eclipse. First Encounter-Rainforest Covenant Rainforest Journey The monsoon winds,wrapped in the pungent scent of rotting durians and burning corpse oil,colored the Chiang Mai rainforest into a yellow-green miasma labyrinth.Maya's fingers clutched the gilded invitation,veins rippling,gilt lines scraping her palm-the nine heads of the Naga Serpent God had opened their pupils under the blood stains. The bulletproof glass of the SUV is covered with ghoul vines,black voodoo-fed plants that are banging on the windows with their barbed vines in an attempt to penetrate the vehicle and feed on the flesh and blood of the living. Those silk cloths embroidered with descending sigils stretched in the wind,revealing the shriveled fetus inside-a failed product of the Gumatron's refining,with blood leeches writhing in its eye sockets. “Clan Silvermoon wants more than just a marriage.”Father Sharuk tore at the poison ivy wrapped around the steering wheel,the sap burning scorch marks on the back of his hand,“They need the prophetic blood of the Eclipse Bride to restart the altar of the Wolf God.” Maya kicked at the vines that attempted to burrow into the car,the characteristic amber pupils of the Leopard Clan flooded with blood,“So I'm to be sacrificed to the enemies who slaughtered the ancestors of the Leopard Clan three hundred years ago?” Twelve statues of Lord Shiva suddenly turned their heads as the outline of the thousand-year-old banyan temple emerged in the poisonous miasma.Maya stepped over the hieroglyphics on the lapis lazuli slabs and realized that the skull of the Cambodian Blood Wolf King was pressed under each one-and in those empty eye sockets,the battle flag of the Silver Moon clan was rotting. Ananta Silvermoon stepped barefoot across the bloody moss,the clatter of his silver belt chain resonating with the bone flute deep within the temple.The three claw marks across his chest were not the legendary medallions of a decapitated wolf king,but rather self-inflicted marks from the onset of the'Heart Eater Curse'-Maya keenly smelled the necrotic aroma escaping from the wounds,the same scent as her father's when he coughed up blood. “The Covenant Wine used the heart blood of seventeen virgins of my clan.”Ananta pushed the bone cup to the altar,the wolf's teeth set in the rim of the cup suddenly biting into Maya's wrist,“But your blood is more precious than all of them combined.”The gilt wolf pupils reflected the silver threads wandering from her birthmark,those rays were quantum entangled with the star map in the temple dome. Maya suddenly overturned the bone chalice,the scarlet liquid igniting indigo ghostly flames on the altar,“You have mixed the ashes of the necropolis lord in the wine!”She pulled out the Cambodian dagger hidden in her boot,and the blade reflected the real face of the“vines”entwined in the columns-thousands of king cobras were spelling out with their letters the lost chapters of the Ramayana,which recorded the secret method of refining the bride into a living sacrificial vessel. Ananta's silver wolf studs suddenly burst,shattered crystals stabbing into the side of Maya's neck.The moment the two men's blood mingled,the shrill whine of the First Bride from three hundred years ago emanated from the temple floor.A golden cage rose from the cracks in the emerald ground. “See?This is your fate.”Ananta ripped off his animal-skin cloak,and a rune that perfectly matched Maya's birthmark surfaced on his back,“With every attack of the heart-eating spell,our souls merge one point.”He grabbed Maya's hand and pressed it to his heart,where what was beating was actually half of a Panther heart. The swarm of night lords crashed through the stained-glass windows,and Maya saw the prophetic vision in a shower of flying glass:herself wearing the bloodstained wedding dress of the First Bride,stabbing peacock-plume-feathered arrows into the pupils of Ananta's wolves.And in reality,the altar was collapsing. “Jump into the necropolis with this in three days.”The moment Ananta snapped the silver bracelet onto her wrist,the Garuda totem suddenly activated,the sharp claws of the golden-winged bird stabbing into Maya's arteries,“Or watch as the Leopard Clan is alchemized into a new Gurmukhi.” Maya awoke with a start in her sickbed at the Bamboo House,the seven moonlit nights of unconsciousness leaving her muscles as limp as a newborn deer fawn.Noe lifted the curtain embroidered with the god Naga,and the moonlight poured down on her newborn lotus tattooed body:“The night you fell into the Eagle's Nostalgia Stream,the matriarch used the inner elixir of a thousand year old wolf king to revive you,but he himself was revolted and took on the form of a wolf...” The bronze mirror suddenly trembled,and Maya saw Ananta's silhouette appear in the mirror.He was standing in front of the ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia,his psychic bone flute oozing black blood at his waist-a secret technique used by Siamese wolves to communicate with their mates. “Maya Silvermoon,the time has come to fulfill your bridal vows.”His voice was wrapped in thunder from the depths of the rainforest,“The altar of the wolf god in the Golden Triangle is beginning to crumble,and only the blood of the Bride of the Eclipse can awaken the sleeping idol of Bayan.” Noe suddenly covered her mouth.Maya followed her startled gaze and looked down,realizing that her wrists were floating in a spiderweb of silver light.It was a sign of the onset of the'bonding spell',which resonated with the other partner when they used their psychic energy.Memories flooded in like a tidal wave:the moment she fell off the cliff,Ananta transformed into a silver wolf and tore through the night sky. “It's time for Madam to change the medicine.” The witch doctor entered holding a bronze mirror inlaid with emerald,and the mirror reflected the newly emerging mandala pattern on Maya's back-a sign that the“Binding of Life and Death”contract had fully awakened.When the witch doctor lifted her lapel to apply the holy oil,Maya suddenly pressed on her heart:buried there was half a wolf's tooth,a token left behind by Ananta when he bit through her collarbone on the wedding night. The bamboo curtain was suddenly lifted by a strong wind,and Maya caught a glimpse of ghostly blue flames drifting in the depths of the rainforest.Those“corpse fireflies”manipulated by the black sorcerer were forming the Burmese symbol-“The Bride of the Eclipse will die on the Third Blood Moon”.