Selene
She didn't speak to Kael for three days.
Not because she wanted to punish him—but because every time she looked at him, she saw the bloodstained pages of the Grimoire. Her parents. Her sisters. Snuffed out like candles before they could defy the prophecy.
She'd always known there were pieces missing in her past.
Now she knew why.
They weren't missing.
They'd been erased.
On the third night, Selene stood on the edge of the fortress cliff, wind pulling at her cloak. Below, the cursed valley stretched like a wound. She thought about jumping—not to die, but to fly. To see if the storm inside her could finally carry her somewhere else.
Kael approached silently.
"You're not going to stop me?" she asked.
"If I thought you wanted to die," he said, "I would have."
She didn't turn to face him. "I'm not who you thought I'd be, am I?"
"No," Kael said, voice softer now. "You're more."
Selene finally turned. "Then help me. Not as your duty. Not as your penance. But because I need to know. All of it."
Kael hesitated.
Then he held out his hand.
"I'll show you where it began."
The Silver Knight
The blood dripped onto the marble beneath the ruined throne. The mirror above it shimmered once, then cracked down the center.
And from it, she emerged.
Not fully.
Only her reflection.
But it was enough.
Selene's mother.
Tall. Beautiful. Eyes like broken galaxies.
"Knight of Hollow Vows," she said.
He bowed.
"My queen. Your daughter awakens."
The reflection smiled. "Then the world begins to end."
The knight tensed. "You still wish for the prophecy to unfold?"
"She cannot stop it now," her mother whispered. "Not without me."
"And Kael?"
The queen's reflection flickered, her smile sharpening.
"He will break before the end. He always does."
Selene
They descended deep beneath the fortress.
Through catacombs no longer marked on maps. Past the bones of those who'd failed to awaken their magic. Until at last, they stood before a sealed door—marked not with locks, but with a language Selene could suddenly read.
"Blood remembers what the mind forgets," she whispered.
Kael watched her.
"You're ready."
Selene stepped forward.
The door opened.
Inside was not a vault.
Not a crypt.
But a room.
A child's room.
Toys. A small bed. A cracked lullaby box. On the wall, a mural of the night sky painted by a mother's hand.
Selene's breath hitched.
"This was mine," she said.
Kael nodded. "They kept it sealed when they took you. They thought it would... interfere."
Selene knelt by the bed.
She touched the box.
It began to sing.
And in the song, she heard her mother's voice:
"Sleep, little flame, sleep deep and low.
The stars will burn when it's time to grow..."
Selene wept.
Not from pain.
But from remembrance.
Final Scene
In a tower far away, the mirror cracked once more.
The queen's voice whispered:
"She's waking faster than I planned."
And in the dark beneath the castle, something ancient stirred—an echo of the gods long buried.