"They said only one moon chooses a soul. So what does it mean when all five answer?"
Rain fell in silver sheets, slicking the dark stone path that wound its way to the iron-wrought gates of Astraeon Academy—the most prestigious, secretive, and dangerous school for the Moonborn, those chosen by the moons and marked with magic.
Above, the sky pulsed with unnatural light.
Five moons—each in a distinct phase—hovered in perfect, impossible alignment, suspended in the heavens like watchful eyes.
They glowed with celestial fire: gold, silver, blue, red, and deepest black.
The world should've crumbled under that sky.
Instead, it held its breath.
Seventeen-year-old Aysel Caelum stood alone at the gate, drenched to the skin, water dripping from her hair, her fingers clenched into trembling fists. Her cloak clung to her like a second skin, soaked and heavy, but it wasn't the rain that made her shake.
It was everything else.
She wasn't supposed to be here.
She wasn't supposed to exist—not like this.
She had been Unmarked. Ordinary. Nothing.
Until last night.
Until the Fivefold Eclipse.
Until five blazing brands had seared themselves into her flesh, one after another—like the sky itself had chosen her.
She still couldn't breathe properly.
Her back still burned with the wildfire heat of the Full Moon.
Her chest throbbed with the deep, eerie pulse of the New Moon.
Her collarbone shimmered silver—Waxing Crescent.
Her hands sparked uncontrollably—Waning Crescent.
And the inner bend of her arm still glowed a dull red from the First Quarter.
Each mark throbbed with a different magic. A different weight. A different will.
She bore them all.
Five moons. Five marks.
No one in living—or dead—memory had ever borne more than one.
Now, under "emergency observation," she was being escorted by two silent faculty members cloaked in silver-threaded robes and veiled in shadow. They didn't speak. They didn't need to. The tension in the air said enough.
As the gates of Astraeon creaked open with an ancient groan, Aysel stepped through.
And the academy itself felt her.
The whispers began almost instantly.
In the shadows of the arched entryway.
From behind floating staircases and carved columns.
Low voices laced with awe, fear... and something else. Anticipation.
She wasn't just an anomaly.
She was a question no one wanted to ask.
She was the beginning of something—and they didn't know if it was prophecy or doom.
Inside, Astraeon was a cathedral of magic.
Staircases curled midair with no visible support. The glass domes overhead rippled with reflected constellations, shifting in real-time with the sky. Silver-and-stone walls pulsed faintly with runes too old to translate. And above all, the banners of the Five Moon Houses floated in perfect stillness, even as phantom wind stirred Aysel's cloak.
The further she walked, the less it felt like a school and more like a temple.
Like the walls remembered gods.
Like they were waiting for something.
For her.
At last, a massive oak door came into view—veined with silver, humming with old enchantments. One of the robed faculty raised a hand and it opened with a deep, echoing boom.
And then—silence.
Dozens of students turned in their seats as she entered the Great Moon Hall, their gazes cutting into her like blades. She could feel them. The scrutiny. The tension.
Aysel kept her eyes forward, though her stomach twisted. Her footsteps echoed like thunder as she walked toward the center of the room.
There, waiting beneath the high arched ceiling and the mirrored sky, stood five boys.
Each of them a legend.
Each chosen by one moon.
Each now somehow tethered to her.
The first stood to the right, his hair a shock of red flame, his eyes like burning embers beneath furrowed brows.
Kael Vireon, House Ignis, the Full Moon.
He looked at her like she was an unpredictable storm—and he'd already lived through too many.
Beside him stood a boy with a silver mask covering the upper half of his face, mischief dancing behind the exposed smirk on his lips.
Zephyr Aelion, House Ventu, the Waxing Crescent.
He tilted his head, studying her like she was the start of his favorite game.
At the center stood a boy with hair like sunfire and a dreamstone turning slowly in his palm. His smile was gentle, but his eyes were distant, like he was listening to music only he could hear.
Riven Solare, House Aqua, the Waning Crescent.
To his right, half-leaning against a stone pillar, arms crossed, was a boy with cold steel eyes that tracked her every movement.
Dax Arclay, House Terra, the First Quarter.
Tension rolled off him like thunder about to break.
And in the shadows, nearly part of them, stood the last.
Lucien Noctis, House Umbra, the New Moon.
His presence was quieter. He didn't need to speak to command the dark. His eyes—violet rimmed in shadow—never left hers.
Not once.
Then a voice rang through the hall, clear and crystalline:
"Aysel Caelum."
Everyone stilled.
From the dais, the Headmistress stepped forward, robes shimmering like night sky.
"You have been summoned by all five Moons.
For the first time in recorded history, one soul bears every mark."
"You are no longer an outsider."
"You are Astraeon's greatest mystery."
The words settled over the hall like falling stars.
A pause.
And then—
"Welcome to the academy."
And just like that... it began.