EPISODE 6: Whispers Beneath the Blood Moon
The forest groaned under the weight of the blood moon, its crimson glow bleeding through the skeletal canopy of trees. Everything felt still—too still. No wind, no chirping insects. Even the shadows seemed to be holding their breath. Mael moved slowly through the underbrush, each step careful, his instincts screaming that something wasn't right. This part of the woods had always felt strange… but tonight, it felt alive, as if the very trees were watching him.
A cold shiver danced across his spine. The deeper he walked, the louder the silence became—oppressive and deafening. Then he saw her.
She stood alone in a clearing ruined by time and fire, where ancient stones jutted from the earth like broken teeth. Her cloak shimmered like woven moonlight—silver, radiant, unnatural. She wasn't facing him, yet Mael froze, knowing instantly she was aware of him. There was something about her presence… like a forgotten dream trying to claw its way back into reality.
His breath caught. This was the figure from his vision—the one cloaked in silver. But now, she wasn't a hallucination. She was real. And she was waiting.
> "The moon reveals what shadows try to hide," the woman said, her voice soft and melodic, but it echoed unnaturally, as if spoken from a place far beyond this world.
Mael took a step forward. "Who are you?"
She turned at last, and her eyes locked with his—silver and ancient, filled with secrets he hadn't known he was searching for. "I am Selona," she said. "And I've been waiting for you, Mael."
His name on her lips sent a chill through his chest. "How do you know who I am?"
She smiled faintly, but it wasn't a comforting smile. "Because I was there… the night your story began. The night they cursed you."
Mael's heart pounded. "You were there the night my family was slaughtered?"
Selona stepped forward slowly, the moonlight flickering off her cloak like water. "I watched from the veil when the flames rose. I heard your mother's final cry. You were meant to die, Mael. But something ancient interfered. Something older than the curse itself."
He clenched his fists, fighting the tremble in his muscles. "So what does that make me? Some broken prophecy?"
"No," she whispered. "It makes you a survivor. And something far more dangerous."
> "You're not just cursed, Mael... You're evolving. Becoming something even the cursed ones fear."
The words hit him harder than any blow. He felt it—the storm inside him, that thing beneath his skin that howled in silence. It was changing. And maybe, deep down, he'd known it all along.
"Why me?" he asked, voice low, cracked.
"Because the curse failed to control you," Selona replied. "Your blood... resisted. And now the blood moon doesn't just stir your beast—it awakens what lies beneath."
She reached into her cloak and drew out something glowing—a shard, like a broken piece of star-glass, pulsing with a dull red light. "This will show you what they buried. What they feared you would remember."
Mael hesitated. "What is it?"
"A fragment of your truth. But truth demands pain. If you take it, your mind will bleed."
> "If you don't remember who you were... you'll never survive what you're becoming."
His hand shook as he reached for the shard. The moment his fingers brushed it, fire exploded behind his eyes. His knees gave out. The world fell away.
Darkness.
Screams.
Flames licking the sky.
A man in black robes, chanting in a forgotten tongue.
A child—himself—strapped to a stone slab, eyes wild with terror. His mother screaming his name.
Except it wasn't Mael.
It was… Kael.
"No…" he gasped, eyes wide with horror. "That's not my name!"
Selona knelt beside him, her voice a soft echo. "It was. Before they shattered your spirit and forged a monster from your ashes."
Mael gripped the dirt, trying to breathe through the stabbing pain in his head. His memories were like shards of broken glass—sharp, scattered, unfinished.
"They took your name to bind your soul," Selona continued. "But the bond is breaking. And when it does... they'll come for you."
His vision cleared slowly. The shard had faded, but its heat still pulsed in his palm. Selona rose, and in the blink of an eye, she was standing across the clearing again, cloaked in distance, wrapped in silence.
"What do you want from me?" he asked, struggling to his feet.
"I want you to remember," she said. "Because soon, you will stand at the edge of war—not just with the wolves, but with what lies beneath this cursed earth."
A howl rose in the distance. Then another. But these were not from wolves—they were twisted, broken, wrong. The corrupted ones. Selona didn't flinch.
"You should go now," she said quietly. "You've seen enough for one night."
Mael turned to run, then paused. "Will I see you again?"
Her voice drifted behind him like a falling leaf. "When the moon is darkest... and your heart remembers who it truly beats for."
He looked back, but she was gone. Only the ruined altar remained, bathed in blood-colored light. In his hand, the shard pulsed once more, like a heartbeat.
As he vanished into the trees, Mael didn't feel like himself anymore.
He felt like something ancient… finally waking up.
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