The forest had not slept that night. The wind clawed through its branches, weaving a sound that was neither howl nor sigh, but something older, a whisper that felt deliberate. Mael kept walking, his boots crunching on frost-bitten leaves, each step carrying the weight of too many unanswered questions. Selona moved ahead of him, her silver cloak trailing like a wisp of moonlight in the darkness, never quite touching the ground. She did not glance back, but Mael could feel her attention fixed on him, as if his every breath was measured and weighed.
They reached the edge of a clearing where the moonlight pooled thick and pale, making the grass seem coated in silver ash. Selona finally stopped, her back still to him. "You wonder why I found you," she said, her voice low, as though afraid the night itself might overhear. Mael didn't answer. He had long suspected there was more to her presence than curiosity or pity, but her tone now carried a weight that pressed against his ribs.
Selona turned, her eyes reflecting the moon with an intensity that seemed almost unnatural. "You have something I do not," she continued, stepping closer, the scent of frost and wild herbs clinging to her. "I have seen monsters, Mael. I have hunted them. But there are places I dare not tread… not because I lack courage, but because there are truths in those places that would shatter me. You, however…" She paused, searching his face. "You are dangerous enough to walk into the heart of that darkness and still return."
Mael narrowed his eyes, the shadows in his mind shifting. "What is it you want from me?" he asked. He did not like her choice of words — dangerous enough. It was a reminder of what he was becoming, of what the blood moon's curse was carving into him. Selona stepped so close their breath mingled in the cold air. "There is a place in Kael's domain… a fortress older than his reign, built to hold something that even he fears. I need what lies inside."
The words were simple, but the way she spoke them made Mael's skin crawl. The thought of Kael fearing anything was absurd — Kael was the shadow that others feared. If there was something greater… then it was something that did not belong in mortal hands. "Why can't you get it yourself?" Mael asked, his voice sharp. Selona's lips curled in something between a smile and a grimace. "Because it calls for blood like yours. That place… it will not open for me. It will devour me before I even reach its gates. But you… your power, your curse, they are the key. Without you, I can't even stand before it."
The air between them thickened, as though the night was leaning in to listen. Mael took a step back, his mind tangled with suspicion. "So you've been leading me to this all along," he muttered. Selona didn't deny it. Instead, she reached into her cloak and pulled out a shard of something dark and jagged, its surface pulsing faintly like a dying ember. "This is a fragment of the lock," she said, holding it out. "It's been in my keeping for years. I stole it from Kael's own vault. Without it, the path remains hidden."
A gust of wind swept through the clearing, scattering brittle leaves across their feet. Mael stared at the shard but did not take it. There was a part of him — the beast — that leaned toward it, curious, hungry. He clenched his fists. "You think I'll just agree because you dressed it in mystery?" he asked. Selona's voice softened, but her eyes sharpened. "No. I think you'll agree because you want answers as much as I do. You want to know why your curse feels… unfinished. Why the moon's pull is not the same for you as it is for others. That fortress holds what you seek — and perhaps what you fear most."
Mael's breath caught, though he tried not to show it. The truth was, she had touched a nerve. Every night since the blood moon first rose over his life, he had felt the gnawing sense that his transformation was not complete, that something was waiting, watching, deciding. If there was a place that held the answer — even if it lay in the jaws of Kael's domain — could he truly turn away? The thought was a hook in his mind, sharp and unshakable.
Selona stepped back into the shadows, her figure half-swallowed by the treeline. "I will not force you," she said, her voice a whisper carried by the wind. "But the blood moon comes again in three nights. After that… the path will close for another cycle. Decide before then, Mael. Decide whether you'll be the hunter or the hunted." Without another word, she vanished into the dark, leaving only the faint scent of frost and the shard lying at his feet, pulsing like a heartbeat he couldn't ignore.
The forest seemed to close in around him as he stood alone in the clearing. Somewhere far off, a wolf howled — not a cry of hunger, but of warning. Mael bent and picked up the shard, feeling its cold bite seep into his skin. It was heavier than it looked, as if it carried the weight of whatever secret lay behind that fortress door. For the first time in a long while, Mael felt the stirrings of something not quite fear, not quite anticipation… but both, tangled together in the
shape of destiny.