The Injured Luna

council is summoned

The hawks were released before dawn, feathers slicing the twilight as they carried encrypted moonscrolls to the far corners of the realm. By the time the sun crested the eastern hills, shimmering portals began opening one by one across the sacred courtyard.

From the north came Elder Maia of the Ice Fang Clan, draped in robes woven with frostbite and fur. Her silver wolf trotted beside her, eyes gleaming like glacier fire.

From the east, the Skywatch Alphas descended on cloud-gliders, their wings made of woven starlight and feathers pulled from dreambeasts.

The southern desert gave them High Mystic Tanari, who traveled barefoot with sand trailing behind her like memory. And from the west, cloaked in violet flame, came the Fire Keepers, their Luna bearing burn-scars that pulsed with prophecy.

Each bowed to Anna as she stepped forward, belly full of life, eyes full of warning.

“She’s the one the prophecies spoke of,” Maia murmured. “The womb-bearer of light and shadow.”

Inside the great hall, candles were lit with soulfire. Richard stood to Anna’s left, flanked by Johnny and Charlie. Candace and Lacy took position at her back, hands on her shoulders like anchors.

Anna raised her voice. “A seal has broken. A rot stirs beneath the earth. It seeks the marked children.”

Tanari’s brow furrowed. “The girl from the marsh?”

Anna nodded. “And others. More are awakening. The shadow’s moving faster now.”

“We knew something dark was coming,” said a Skywatch Alpha. “But this soon?”

Maia stepped forward, placing a hand over Anna’s belly. Her eyes rolled white. “This child holds the balance. A beacon to the lost. That is why the darkness wants them. If they twist the beacon, they twist the world.”

A chill ran through the room.

“Then we guard her,” Richard said, voice low and lethal. “And we find the others before they do.”

Anna stepped forward. “No more hiding. It’s time to train them—to gather them. We build a sanctuary. One they can’t breach. One made from more than magic.”

The Fire Keeper Luna nodded. “Made from unity. Blood. Bone. Oaths stronger than death.”

The council murmured agreement. Plans began to take shape.

But outside the warded walls, far beyond their circle of light, a shadow watched from within the trees.

The figure with the bone hand.

And in its palm rested a single white feather—burning.