The stars that night burned colder than usual—sharp and clear, like shards of forgotten prophecy.
Selene stood barefoot in the center of the sacred ring Naeria had carved into the earth, her dark cloak trailing behind her like shadow-stained wings. Crushed moonroot, glimmering silver dust, and old runes outlined the circle around her feet. Above, constellations blinked steadily in an ink-dark sky, hanging low—closer than they had any right to be.
She inhaled deeply, eyes closed.
The air tasted different tonight.
It tasted like memory.
Like fate.
---
Kael stood just outside the ring, his arms crossed over his chest. His gold-ringed eyes followed every movement with quiet intensity.
"You're sure about this?" he asked.
Selene nodded. "It's time I know the truth."
"You already know who you are."
She opened her eyes and met his gaze.
"No. I know what they told me I was. That's different."
---
Naeria stood opposite Kael, her fingers glowing faintly with spelllight. Her tone was softer than usual—reverent.
"The ritual is dangerous," she warned. "It's not just a vision. It's a return. An unraveling of blood."
Selene's voice was steady. "Then unravel me."
Naeria took one last breath. Then, with a whispered incantation in the old tongue, she drew a line of starlight across the air.
And the ritual began.
---
Light shimmered at Selene's feet.
It coiled up her legs in thin threads, wrapping around her waist, her arms, her throat—until it touched her forehead and ignited into a burst of brilliant white fire.
Selene gasped—but didn't move.
She was no longer standing in the ring.
She was elsewhere.
---
She stood on a cliff at the edge of a dead sky.
Below her: a sea of stars—liquid and luminous, rolling and whispering like water made of memory.
Before her: a tall woman draped in robes of celestial silk, skin glowing faintly silver, eyes like dying galaxies.
She held two infants in her arms—one swaddled in light, the other cloaked in a deep, pulsing darkness.
And when she turned her face, Selene saw her own reflection in the woman's features.
---
The woman spoke without moving her mouth.
> "You are of the line we sealed."
> "You are the last memory of the Starborn."
Selene's lips parted, but no sound came. Her heart thundered in her chest.
The woman raised a single hand and pointed to the swirling cosmos below.
And there, Selene saw a memory unfold—not hers, but inherited.
---
A planet surrounded by rings of ice and flame.
Wolves that ran through stars.
Light that walked in skin.
A war.
Not of kingdoms or thrones—but of balance.
Starborn against Ancients.
Moonlight torn from suns.
And the death of something too vast to name.
---
Selene saw a figure cloaked in vines—Liraith, or someone like her—watching as the Starborn were hunted, their powers fractured, their bloodlines scattered and hidden across galaxies.
One bloodline, however, survived.
Buried.
Altered.
Made to forget.
Until now.
---
"You," the woman whispered again, "are the awakening."
---
The vision shattered.
Selene fell to her knees in the circle, breath ragged, skin damp with starlight.
Kael was beside her in an instant, holding her upright.
"Selene—what did you see?"
She didn't answer at first.
Her eyes were distant.
Then she whispered, "We weren't just Moonbound. We never were."
Naeria stared, pale and shaken. "What do you mean?"
Selene looked up.
Her voice trembled.
> "We're Starborn. We're the descendants of a people who came before the gods, before the Veil."
> "The twins… they're not a prophecy."
> "They're a return."
---
Inside the great lodge, the fire roared.
Selene sat between Kael and Naeria, her hands still trembling. Across the room, Elira and Theron paced, silent but alert—drawn by their mother's cry the moment the ritual ended.
Rowan leaned against the far wall, arms folded. "So the Ancients weren't the beginning."
Naeria nodded. "No. They were usurpers. They overthrew the Starborn and claimed what remained."
Kael frowned. "What does that make the twins?"
Naeria hesitated, then spoke softly.
> "Living keys. If they awaken fully… they could reopen the Starborn Gate."
---
Selene stood.
"The Hollow Kin are proof. The Ancients are stirring. They sense the blood waking."
Elira's voice was quiet. "We felt something last night. A pull… toward the stars."
Theron added, "It didn't feel wrong. But it didn't feel safe either."
Kael looked at Selene. "If this gate opens… what happens?"
Naeria replied before she could.
> "A reckoning. The Veil that separates worlds will thin. And what was sealed may walk again."
---
Outside, the wind howled.
Not a natural wind.
A call.
Far above the treetops, the stars aligned into a sigil none of them had ever seen.
But Selene recognized it.
From the vision.
From her blood.
It was the symbol of the first light.
---
That night, after the fire dimmed and the pack slept, Selene lay beside Kael, staring at the stars through the open roof of their den.
He brushed a strand of hair from her face. "You're not alone in this."
"I know," she whispered.
"But it feels that way sometimes."
He kissed her forehead.
"You said once that love makes you stronger."
She smiled faintly. "It still does."
Kael wrapped his arms around her, pressing his body against hers, grounding her.
"I don't care if you're Starborn, Moonbound, or made of fire and storm," he murmured. "You're mine. That's all I'll ever need."
Selene closed her eyes.
And for a moment—just one—she believed the storm could be delayed.
---
But across the sky, far above even the stars…
A rift opened in silence.
And something watched.
Waiting.
Remembering.
---