Lila’s POV
The locket sat in my hand. Small. Cold. Still. I stared at it, turning it over and over in my hand. I had held it for days now. But something about it still pulled at me. Like it was hiding something more.
Reika walked in with a bowl of tea. “Still looking at it?”
I nodded. “It feels like it wants to tell me more.”
She sat beside me. “Then let’s listen.”
I took a breath and opened the locket again. The tiny paper with the symbols was still inside. Reika had helped me read some of it. Bloodline. Power. Old words. Heavy ones. But now I saw something new.
“What’s that?” I pointed at the edge of the paper. A small fold I hadn’t noticed before. I carefully opened it.
Inside was… more. A sketch. No, lines. Shapes. Trees. A river. And at the center, a circle with a crescent moon
