Selene stood in a meadow unlike any she had ever seen. Grass shimmered silver under the light of two suns: one golden, burning bright, the other pale blue, casting cool shadows.
Far on the horizon, mountains rose like glass, their peaks glowing faintly as if filled with fire. Strange birds with wings of crystal darted overhead, their cries echoing like chimes.
Selene pressed a hand to her chest. Her gown, once velvet trimmed with ermine, had changed. The fabric now shimmered like woven starlight, and her crown had become a circlet of silver flame that hovered just above her hair. At her throat, the ruby pendant glowed softly, beating in time with her heart.
She was no longer the child-empress of Arendral. She felt… different.
"Welcome, Lightbearer."
The voice seemed to rise from the earth itself, deep and resonant. Selene spun around, searching, but saw no one. Only the crystal spires humming with a strange, unearthly power.
Her fingers tightened around the pendant. "Who's there?"
"Your reign is written in starlight and shadow," the voice replied, sorrow threading its words. "You are the Empress of Two Worlds. And the war that has broken this realm awaits your hand."
Before Selene could demand answers, the meadow trembled.
From the edge of the forest, shadows began to spill forth—creatures with bodies like smoke, eyes glowing like coals, and teeth that gleamed white in the dim light. They slithered and stalked, drawn to the glow of her crown.
Selene stumbled back, heart pounding. She had never held a sword, never fought a beast, never done anything but smile and wave and nod at decrees she barely understood. Yet as the monsters closed in, something deep within her stirred—a pulse of fire, a flare of will.
The pendant at her throat blazed.
Light burst from her hands, washing over the meadow in a brilliant wave. The shadows shrieked, scattering into the forest, leaving only silence in their wake.
Selene fell to her knees, trembling. The light dimmed, but the circlet of flame still hovered above her brow. She was breathing hard, tears threatening her eyes—but she was alive.
She had banished them.
And for the first time in her young life, Selene understood something her crown had never taught her:
She was powerful.